The Monster of Stilwater (A Reboot)
by TheMadTargaryen
Summary: Stilwater, a city filled with crime corruption and murder is about to get a taste of the supernatural when a new guy takes up residency in the Row. His quiet and reserved nature only hides what truly lies inside of him. When he joins The Saints, will he be able to control the monster inside or will the violence only unleash it out into the world?
1. Just another night in Stilwater

**Final story update**

 **10/25/17**

 **Hey guys MadTargaryen here with one last notice on this story. To anyone that still reads this story, I have decided to continue my Saints Row story with a new, well...revised version of my SR3 story titled The Monster of Steelport. I have just recently posted the first chapter so come take a look!**

Hey guys MadTargaryen here and glad to be back and I apologize so much for taking so long to get the chapter posted. I had not planned to take this long to finish it. So as I said when I last updated the original Monster of Stilwater story I was gonna do a complete reboot of it. Well here it is, the first chapter. I haven't changed much but I did add more content to the chapter so it is a little more lengthy by at least 2,000 more words, which I hope you all enjoy. I still am going to go the same route I was in the original story, I am just adding a bit more content to the current chapters.

Alright, well enough author talk, here it is the first chapter of my rebooted story.

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The Monster of Stilwater (A Reboot)

CH.1

Just another night in Stilwater

The night has been like the many other nights in the crime riddled city of Stilwater. The streets were filled with the homeless looking for a place to sleep for the night, the street walkers were walking up and down the streets waving down any potential Johns while their pimps camped out not too far from them, collecting the money their girls have earned for the evening. Every few blocks, police cars were patrolling the streets for any criminals to bust or anyone to just hassle around for the fun of it. But the main problem that this city has are the gangs that roam the city's' streets as if they owned them, causing trouble and mayhem wherever they go and starting fights with anyone that looks at them the wrong way. That's what had happened inside of T 'N' Ay strip club; A few guys from the Carnales decided to pick a fight with a few of the Vice Kings enjoying their time at the club. Luckily the fight ended with minimal damage and the two gangs were forced out, leaving behind a small mess for the quiet busboy to clean up. It is just another night in Stilwater.

Gray isn't your average young twenty-one year old man. In fact, you couldn't even call him a person. Not anymore at least. You see, Gray is a monster that nobody knows about. Nobody knows what's hidden beneath inside the young man.

Gray is a good looking young man with a slender boyish face. Baby face and angelic face were what was used to describe him in the past. When he isn't being his usual quiet and stoic self, he would smile a natural crooked smile that made any girl that he smiled at swoon in seconds at witnessing the dazzling sight, especially the girl's at his job. His soft mane of brown hair falls short just above his shoulders. On the left side of his face Gray keeps his hair tucked behind his ear revealing a sharp silver stud sticking through his earlobe with an identical stud pierced through his right ear as well. His eyes were a very unique color, a bright aqua green color that on some nights in certain lights, they look as if they are glowing. Gray is fairly tall, standing at just 6ft with his long lean and toned body.

Tonight, Gray is wearing his black busboy T-shirt with the words T 'N' Ay printed in bright neon pink on the left side of his chest and a pair of dark blue jeans torn at the knee's and black converse as he placed a few tables back in their place and cleaned up the bottles strewn on the floor from the brief fight that evening.

It was actually a pretty slow night. But what else would you expect on a Tuesday night? There were a few loyal customers spread out around the large red and pink tinted room admiring the clubs collection of gorgeous women dancing seductively to the loud music bumping out of the speakers hanging all around the large room as Gray walked from table to table making his rounds and collecting any used glass' and bottles into his tray and cleaning each table off and walking back into the kitchen to clear out his tray and went back out to continue to cleaning, passing by these twin sisters named Haley and Holly dancing for a creepy middle aged dude staring at the two with wide eyes and a big smile on his face.

"Hey Gray!" The two girls said in unison and waved at him as the young man passed by to collect their customer's empty beer bottles.

Gray turned to toward them and gave what the ladies at T 'N' Ay have called his infamous charming smile.

"Ladies," he greeted back before returning back to work. As he walked away, he could hear the two giggling to each other as the loud rock music began to transition into a new song.

"Hold on Gray," The young man heard one of the sisters' calling out to him. Gray turned from the table he was cleaning to see Haley and Holly coming his way.

"You get off at 2 right?" Haley asked him. Gray nodded in response and said "Uh, yeah I do."

"Great, so do we!" Both the sister's cheered excitedly. "Well, maybe after work you could come over and the three of us could hang out and have a few drinks."

"Oh well that's nice of you to invite me but... um..." Gray's voice began to trail off as he felt pair of hands gently trailing up and down his stomach and chest by Haley and Holly, who were both smirking flirtatiously at him. Gray's body stiffened at their soft sensual touch and he closed his eyes as his breath hitched in his throat at their sudden touch. Almost every night, those two did this to him, hoping that he would finally give in to their attempts.

"We were wondering if you wanted to come over to our place to hand out and have a few drinks and maybe later we can do something more...fun." The two continued with their ministrations on him, hoping that they could finally entice him with their offer. The same offer that they give him every week. Gray wasn't surprised by the twin's proposal. Ever since he started working at the club a year and a half ago, those two have flirted with Gray relentlessly only to be denied by him every time, much to their dismay. Tonight was no different than any other night and he responded with the same answer.

"Ladies," Gray said as politely as he could. "As tempting as your invite is I'm gonna have to decline." Gray removed the girls' hands from his chest as gently as possible to not upset them. They were nice girls and he considered them his friends and wanted to keep it that way, even if they are trying to be something more to him. At least, that's the reason he keeps on telling himself.

"Aww...Come on Gray," the twins pouted. "We want to hang out with you outside of work."

"Sorry girls, but I can't," The young man responded to the girls rather sharply than he should have. The girls looked taken a back at his sudden change in attitude and stepped back. Realizing what he had done Gray gave them a quick smile and apologized for his sudden outburst declining their offer to the girls and told them that he had to get back to work. He turned away and moved on to another table and began cleaning it. Gray took a quick glance at the girls as he wiped down the table and saw that the sisters had walked back to their stage for the next performance. When went back to the table in front of him, Gray saw droplets of blood staining the small round table. The blood was coming from his hand. Gray's left hand was clenched in a tight fist. As he loosened his grasp, his fingers revealed four red puncture marks and sharp claws wet with blood. The cuts healed instantly, leaving only four small lines of blood in their place. With a long sigh, Gray exhaled a long deep breath and returned back to his job.

He didn't mean to sound rude to them, in fact he never talked to any of the girls like that. To them, he seemed quiet, reserved, even a bit shy by the way he acts around them especially when the girls of the club would flirt with him. He had assumed that his reserved attitude and his lowly job as a strip club busboy wouldn't garner him any form of notice from these beautiful woman only for him to be wrong. Haley and Holly were by far the most persistent of the women at the club. They always did this to him and tonight was the first time he ever spoke harshly to the sisters. Maybe it was because he could feel his resistance waning these past few weeks, making it harder for him to fight the desire these girls were tempting him with. Those two loved to tempt him, and it was only a matter of time before he would oblige them and that was something that he did not want on his conscience. Gray didn't want to hurt the girls, he didn't want to hurt anyone. He was better off being left alone. It was better this way.

Just as he finished collecting a group of empty beer bottles plates of buffalo wing bones onto his round tray, Gray couldn't help but overhear an argument going on somewhere in the club's main room. By the sound of the voices, it's between a man and a woman. Nobody could hear them because of the loud rock music blasting all around the club but Gray was able to hear the two just fine. One of the perks of being what he is. From what he can tell, the guy was being a little to grabby with one of the girls and she didn't like it.

Looking up from the now clean table, Gray saw from across the hazy dimly lit room, two people in one of the booths that lined the walls. The woman, Gray recognized as one of the dancers named Samantha was struggling to get away from the guy that was sitting in the booth. Gray recognized the guy too. He is the club owner named Monty who was currently trying to keep a hold of Samantha's scantily clad body from leaving his lap.

From the past year in a half that Gray has worked at the club, he has known Monty as nothing more than a dirty middle aged man with a round balding head and a large beer gut with horrible breathe who wears tacky outfits and treats his employees, especially the girls, as if he owned them. The scumbag is always slapping the girls on their ass whenever they passed by him and his friends, always making crude comments to them, much to the girl's annoyance. The only reason the girls even continue to work here is because the pervert of a boss actually pays them well and offers great health insurance.

"Come on Samantha baby, why won't you come home with me?" the drunken club owner slurred to the beautiful woman trying to free herself from the middle aged man's grasp.

Samantha managed to get up from Monty's lap but she still couldn't pry her slender arm from his pudgy sausage fingers as he tried to keep her from leaving. The look on her face told Gray that she wanted to be anywhere but here.

"God Monty, let me go! I'm tired and just want to get to the station before my train leaves," Samantha snapped at her boss. "I just want to go home, it's been a long day."

"Oh don't worry about that sweet cheeks, I can take you home later." Monty smiled, revealing his stained yellow teeth. Samantha tried to back away as her boss' nasty warm breath was blown in her face with each word that spewed from his mouth. "If you want, when we get to your house I can show you what long really is." The small crowd of Monty's friends that were sitting in the booth with him wolf whistled at his remark.

Samantha's face said it all. She tried to get away from the gross club owner but he just wouldn't let go of her.

Gray made it a point to not let himself get involved in any altercations so that he doesn't draw attention to himself, but when someone is being harmed or harassed, especially a woman, he can't help but interfere. This situation is no different. When Gray could no longer continue to listen to the club owner harassing Samantha, he threw down the damp rag onto the table and made his way across the hazy pink fluorescent lit room to the rowdy booth.

"God Monty, That's enough! Just leave me alone!" Samantha couldn't take her scumbag of a boss' antics anymore and slapped the man hard across his fat sweaty face. The loud music had just ended and the sound of her hand making contact with Monty's right cheek echoed all around the room. The girls stopped dancing and the patrons turned toward the source of noise. Now all the attention was on the club owner and his dancer.

Monty rose from his seat fuming at what had been done to him moments ago. Angry, he pushed Samantha down onto the floor. Samantha fell with a thud and Monty stood over her, his face a deep shade of red.

"You bitch!" He yelled at the cowering young woman, unaware or just not caring that everyone was watching the scene in the back of the main room. The disgusting club owner raised his hand at Samantha and swung fast towards her face.

Samantha braced herself for the pain that was about to come. Nothing happened. Samantha stood still for a few seconds before moving. She opened her eyes and was surprised to see who was in front of her. Standing above her like a protective wall was Gray with his arm outstretched and his hand held onto Monty's balled fist in a tight grip.

Shocked by the inhumanly fast speed Monty looked up with wide eyes at his busboy that had the nerve to intervene in the conflict. The usually calm and reserved young man was looking at him, no glaring at the club owner with so much anger that Monty was actually frightened by the stare he was receiving and instinctively took a step back. Gray made sure to keep his grip tight so the scumbag couldn't try to make for an escape.

"It's not very gentleman-like to strike a woman," Gray said in a menacingly calm voice. Monty stood up to his full height, hoping to intimidate the young busboy. However Gray stood up straight as well and practically towering over his boss.

"These are my girls, pretty boy! I can do whatever the hell I want with them!" Monty spat at Gray. Trying to gain control of the conflict, the fat club owner got into Gray's face. "It's what I pay them for."

Gray could feel his anger rising as he listened to every word Monty said. He tightened his grip around Monty's fist until the chubby club owner was on his knees squealing at the pain as the bones in his hand began to crack under the strong pressure of Gray's grasp.

Monty face twisted in agony as he sputtered out pleas for Gray to let him go but Gray ignored him. Instead he crouched down in front of his boss so they were now eye to eye when he spoke to him.

"They are not your property to do with as you please. You pay these lovely ladies to dance and serve drinks to losers like you who have to pay to get women to just look you." With those last words Gray released his grip on Monty's hand and stood up straight to make his way to the front door as the female employees applauded his outburst at the club owner. Before walking out of the front doors, Gray looked back and saw Monty getting up with help from his friends as he cradled his broken hand. The club owner looked up with his agonizing eyes.

"You…are so fired boy!" He wailed with a shaky voice. "And so dead! Reggie, Gino take this kid out now!"

Gray turned his gaze over to the two gorilla sized bouncers standing in front of the double doors. Gray let out an exasperated sigh. He didn't want to fight them but if they attack him then he would have no choice.

"Do you really want to do this?" Gray asked the two bouncers standing in his way. They both looked at him for a moment, their emotionless faces not giving anything away, then glanced at Monty before stepping aside to give Gray access to the front door, which surprised him since those two did everything that their scumbag boss told them to do without any hesitation. What surprised him even more was when they opened the door for him with a nod of approval. As he began to exit the club, Gray could hear his now former boss cussing a storm at him and at his bouncers. It looks like I'm gonna have to find a new job, again. With that last thought, he left the building and his occupation as the clubs busboy.

Gray was unphased about his sudden unemployment. He was just worried about the girls he would be leaving behind with scum like Monty but hopefully what he said and did to his former employer would change the way he treats his employees. If not, well they could just beat the crap out of him every time he tries to act like an asshole to them. It mattered not as long as Monty eventually got his act together and treated his girls with more respect.

As for employment, Gray wasn't too worried about that. Before leaving his cushy lifestyle and began traveling, he made sure to take with him a good amount of money and stashed it away to be used for an emergency, enough for the average human to live off of without having to work, but Gray isn't the type to just sit around all day and do nothing. Being restless isn't exactly a good thing for him. Gray always felt the need to do something with his hands and he preferred it is something productive. He is all too familiar with how the saying goes, 'idle hands are the devils plaything.'

The night was pleasantly cool and the dark navy sky was clear and speckled with bright stars as Gray made a turn around the back of the strip club and made his way toward the parking lot. It was one of those rare nights in the city that the sky wasn't covered with a thick blanket of smog, making it possible to see the beautiful sky. It was all thanks to the spring showers Stilwater has been blessed with these past few weeks.

As he rounded the corner into the parking lot, Gray's ears perked at the sound of footsteps echoing through the alleyway he had just walked out from. It was probably one of Monty's goonish friends he managed to send after his former employee. Could be something else too. You could never know in this rowdy sin city and should always be prepared for anything.

Gray never kept a gun on him like people in this city, never had much use for one in a long time. Plus he had his own built in weapon. With a flick of his wrist, the finger nails on his right hand grew inches longer and dangerously sharp at the point. He hid his hand behind his back to hide from the incoming intruder but stood in a defensive position so he could be ready to strike if need be.

From the dimly lit alleyway a silhouette grew larger as the figure came closer. The sound of a pair of heels clicking against the concrete floor echoed off the brick walls and a familiar perfume scent made its way toward the young man.

"Gray?" the figure asked. That voice, Gray recognized the voice instantly as Samantha's. He quickly retracted his claws and stood up straight from defensive stance, trying to look normal before she could get suspicious.

Sure enough the young beautiful woman stopped into the street lit parking lot to reveal herself. Samantha's short neck length blonde hair rustled around her heart shaped face by the swift breeze of wind that blew through the cool night air. Her usually scantily clad body was covered by a black overcoat buttoned just above her cleavage and wore a pair of dark blue skinny jeans that looked painted on her lithe legs. Her blue eyes looked at him with some confusion.

"What are you doing?" She asked him.

Slightly embarrassed, Gray ran his fingers through his thick mop of hair, a common thing he did when embarrassed.

"Uh, sorry. I thought you were one of Monty's thugs sent to kill me." He smiled at her.

"Don't worry about it," she said as she began to walk closer towards him. "He did yell at Reggie and Gino to go after you but they still refused. You must have intimidated them pretty good with what you did to get them to not listen to Monty."

They both chuckled at the comment. Two intimidating guys like Gino and Reggie so afraid of someone half their size that they refused to do their boss' commands. Hopefully this is a sign that things will change at the club for the better and the employee's will not have to deal with Monty's shit any longer.

Gray stared at the young woman in front of him for a moment. Of all the beautiful girls at the strip club, Samantha is by far the most gorgeous of them all. The crown jewel of the club, words Monty has always used to describe her. Men from all over the city and neighboring cities come to T 'N' Ay to see her tight curvaceous body sway and gyrate as she danced around the stage and undress for them. She gets paid handsomely by the men to give them just some sort of attention. She is the woman of everyman's fantasy. Gray however knew that she is more than just a stripper. Over the past year that he has worked at the club, Gray has gotten the chance to know all the girls better but not as much as Samantha. The two would talk during their breaks about various things. Books, authors, historical events and even current events. He was surprised at what she knew considering the other girls only read style magazines and the only historical events they knew was of which celebrity dated who and their current events are of which celebrity is currently dating who now. It was then that she told him that she was attending Stilwater University and majoring in History. It is this job that is paying for her tuition. Once she is through with school, she is going to leave this life behind. Gray liked that about her, she knew that she could do more with her life than strip and dance for perverted men for quick cash.

"Thanks for sticking up for me, and the other girls too," Samantha said, breaking the silence between them. "Most people wouldn't speak up from some petty stripper."

"It's no problem," Gray shrugged his shoulders nonchalant. "He shouldn't treat you and the others like that, and you're not a petty stripper. You're a performer, a damn good one at that."

Samantha blushed as her small smile grew wider from his compliment. Much to her relief, it seemed that he didn't see her cheeks flush red as he turned away and walked to his parked Estrada near the far end of the lot.

"Caught my shows have you?" She asked him. One of her eyebrows arched and she had a mischievous smirk on her rosy red lips.

"I may have caught a glimpse or two of your performances as I bussed a few tables," Gray responded back as he revved the engine of his jet black bike and slowly strolled it beside Samantha.

"Hey, so do you need a ride to the train station? I can give you a lift, if you want."

"Actually the trains already stopped for the night." Gray looked at her with confusion. She did say that she had to take the train home, didn't she? Samantha must have noticed too because she answered his internal question.

"I told Monty that so he would let me leave," She explained to him. "I usually take the subway when it's too late for the train, like it is now."

Gray nodded back. It was a smart idea and I would have worked too if Monty wasn't so desperate to get laid that he practically forces himself onto his own employees.

"I was actually wondering if you be kind enough to take me home."

Gray was unsure about taking her home. He doesn't make it a habit to give the girls a ride home. It wasn't because he didn't like them. On the contrary, Gray liked them very much but he remembered what happened earlier with the twins and the wound he gave himself on his hand. He didn't trust himself with them. To be alone with them, in a seclude place, it was too tempting for him if something were to happen.

On the other hand, Gray couldn't just let Samantha walk around the streets of Stilwater alone. Even during the day the city is dangerous. He might be a monster but at least he knew better than to let a beautiful young woman walk these seedy streets by herself. Finally making a decision, Gray nodded and Samantha hopped on the back. Her lean arms snaked around his body. Her hands pressed against his stomach where they intertwined. Once Samantha situated herself onto the seat, Gray revved up the engine and rode the black motorbike into the street and into the night.

The ride through the city was quiet with the exception of when Samantha gave Gray directions to her place. This late at night, the streets were practically empty so Gray didn't really pay much mind to the traffic lights he passed through.

As he rode through the streets, Gray became more aware of Samantha's presence behind him. He could feel her slender arms wrap tighter around his body and her lean figure pressed ever more closely to his. It wasn't just her touch that was making him wary, it was her scent as well, wafting in the air around him. Gray began to lose his concentration on the road as her sweet and irresistible scent enticed him more and more. It was as if he was in a daze and the only way he managed to get out of it was when he felt a tap on his shoulder. Coming back to his senses, Gray heard Samantha tell him that he missed the turn onto her street. He made a U turn on the street and rode back making the turn.

A few minutes later, Gray found himself parking in front of Samantha's home. Her place was nice; a little townhome with a small front yard surrounded by a rod iron fence.

Samantha got off the bike first. She held onto Gray's shoulders to steady herself as she got off the motorbike. Gray couldn't help but notice how one of her hands slipped down to his chest and lingered for a moment, almost as if she was trying to cop a feel.

"Walk me to my door?" She breathed in his ear making Gray tense as her cool breath tickled the side of his face. He turned to her, to see her bright blue eyes had a hint of hope as she waited for his answer. He should say no. He hasn't been feeling right since work and it hasn't gotten any better with company near him. Gray felt like Samantha wouldn't be safe around him. Gray wanted to say no to her, that he had to leave but instead he nodded in acceptance and got off his bike, following Samantha up the stone pathway to the small wooden porch and stopped at her white front door. For a moment, they both stood there under the dim porch light in silence until Samantha spoke up.

"Thank you for giving me a lift home," She said sweetly, giving Gray a genuine smile. "It was really sweet of you."

Gray waved his hand. "It was nothing. I am just glad I could help such a beautiful woman." Samantha's cheeks flushed a dark shade of pink at his compliment, even more so when Gray smiled his infamous crooked smile that the girls seemed to love. Her scent became ever stronger when her cheeks flushed red from the blood flowing to her head. His body tensed and his breathing hitched in his chest as he tried to ignore the strengthened aroma of Samantha's that covered her body like a sweet blood scented blanket. Samantha noticed his look of discomfort and took a step closer, not knowing that it was her herself that was the cause.

"Are you okay Gray?" She asked with concern. He gave her a nod as he took a step back.

"I'm fine," he told her calmly, keeping a smile on his face as reassurance. "It's getting late, I better get going." Just as he turned around to leave, he felt Samantha's petite hand hold onto his arm.

"Do you really have to leave so soon? I mean, since you aren't working at the club anymore, this might be the last time we get to hang out and talk. So, please stay? Just for a bit?"

Gray nodded in acceptance. He couldn't help himself. He wanted to say no to her but something inside him beckoned him to accept her request. It didn't help that Samantha looked even more attractive when she playfully pouted. How could someone refuse, even a creature like him.

Samantha unlocked the door and walked in. Gray was about to do the same only to stop short of the open doorway. He couldn't just walk into her house. Her house wouldn't let him in without an invitation by said owner.

Samantha noticed what she thought was him hesitating to enter her home.

"Aren't you going to come in?" She asked him. Gray could feel the invisible barrier that kept him out disappear and took a slow step over the threshold, then another step until he was completely in Samantha's home. He turned toward the young woman who just smiled a kind smile at him. Gray was relieved that she didn't question his actions.

"You're pretty shy aren't you?" She giggled as he ran his right hand through his brown locks.

"Sometimes," he replied back. Gray took a quick look around his surroundings. Samantha's home was a bit small but had a cozy feel to it.

"You have a really nice home Samantha-" Gray's voice trailed off to silence by the cause of the scene in front of him. Samantha had taken off her brown overcoat and slipped one arm out of her white bra strap and did the same with the other.

Samantha had her back turned toward the young man. She turned her head to the side to see his pouty lips parted and his beautiful aqua green eyes transfixed on her bare torso as she turned her body around as she slipped off the bra completely and tossed it onto the wooden floor of her living room.

"Did you really think that I just wanted to talk?" She asked him as her hands slow and sexily unbuttoned her jeans and slipped them off one leg at a time. Her voice sweet yet sultry as she walked over to Gray, reveling in his gaze at her pert breast and lean tight body.

With much difficulty, Gray closed his eyes and took a deep breath. His heart was pounding fast in his chest and he had to look away from the beautiful woman in front of him in attempt to slow down his heart to a more normal rate. He had known that she liked him, though Samantha wasn't as vocal about her feelings towards him as the other girls, definitely not as much as Haley and Holly. Gray couldn't lie either, he is attracted to Samantha as well. What guy wouldn't be? But he knew it wouldn't work out. In the end he would drive her away, if he didn't kill her first.

Samantha sauntered over to Gray. Her soft hands gently rubbing up his broad chest, slowly making their way up his neck and finally resting on each side of his face. Gently, she brought his head down closer to hers, stopping only when their lips were inches apart. Her scent was driving him crazy. With all his might Gray kept himself calm and composed for the woman in front of him. To keep himself from attacking her. With the feeling of himself losing control of his body, Gray wouldn't move for fear of what unpredictable thing he could do to Samantha.

Samantha began to nuzzle his neck, peppering him with soft chaste kisses down to his collarbone as her hands snaked through his soft thick brown hair.

"Samantha, listen I-" before he could finish, his voice was hushed by her lips on his. Gray could feel her longing for him with the kiss. How she held onto him with tight embrace to his stiff body. Her small figure closing any gap that was between them as her body pressed against his own. That's when he felt it, this feeling inside as if something was trying to take control of him.

Gray had to stop, to leave now with what remainder of control he still had in him before Gray could harm Samantha. His body wasn't responding to what he needed to do but what he wanted to do.

Gray could feel her tongue pressing against his closed lips, trying to gain entrance into his mouth. It was difficult to deny her, his own self-control waned by the second until he couldn't stop himself. Parting his lips, Samantha's tongue snaked into his mouth to which Gray instinctively reacted as the kiss deepened with such fervor.

Gray grabbed Samantha by her curvaceous hips, his hands held her tight. Samantha was surprised that he kissed her back and with such passion when just moments before he seemed to recoil at her kiss and touch but she went with it and wrapped herself evermore into his body. Grabbing a fistful of his black t-shirt and tugged him over to the couch and pushed him onto the soft dark red cushions Samantha straddled his waist as she slid her soft hands under his shirt, feeling the contours of his abs and chest. Gray's body tensed at her fingers lightly scraping against his smooth torso.

Samantha felt weightless on top of Gray's body. To him her body felt so fragile for him to touch as he tried to keep a light hold on her thighs. His hands roamed her soft milky white legs, slowly making his way up towards her ass as he massages her tongue with his own.

It was becoming hard for him to concentrate on keeping calm. He already can't stop himself from making out with the beautiful young woman above him now, all he could do is hope his control will not falter.

Gray's lips moved away from hers and trailed to her cheeks and then her jaw line stopping at her throat. He could feel her throat vibrate with her moans of pleasure, egging him to keep his lips there as he nipped and licked her tender skin. Samantha slowly grinded her body against his own, enjoying the ministrations he was giving her.

"Gray, you don't know how long I have wanted this," she moaned into his ear breathlessly.

Her scent, her arousal, was driving him crazy. Gray tried to stop, to leave her home and run away as far as possible but he couldn't leave her embrace, he couldn't move away from her soft delicious lips pressed hard against his own. Being close to Samantha would be bad for her. He doesn't want to hurt her but another part of him did. The creature that he keeps trapped inside wants nothing more than to kill her, to tear into her flesh, to taste her warm delicious blood coursing through her veins. That creature, that monster is what's keeping him here with Samantha. It wants Gray to lose control, so he could feed once again. Gray hasn't had such fresh prey in a long time and the creature that hides under his skin knows it. Samantha would be perfect for a first. So young, so beautiful with a scent too irresistible to pass up.

Gray could feel her warm blood pumping through the veins of her throat as he kissed licked and nipped at the soft flawless skin. He must have bit her a little too hard when he heard a small yelp leave Samantha's lips but he didn't stop. His control was waning and he couldn't get himself to stop and get away from the young woman as much as he tried. Slowly he kept nipping at her skin harder and harder making Samantha more uncomfortable instead of feeling the pleasure that his lips had given her moments before. He could tell when she moved her hands back to both sides of his face trying to move his lips back to her own. Gray however, did not like that. Instinctively he grabbed her hands and snatched them away from his face and pinned them above her head, keeping a tight grip with one of them while his other hand slid under her body. Samantha could have sworn she heard a low growl coming from Gray's chest.

"Gray sweetie, you're hurting me a little," Samantha said warily. He didn't hear her, or didn't care too anymore. She tried to push him off but Gray only held onto her tighter. He let out another low deep growl vibrating through his chest and throat. Samantha was afraid now, Gray didn't have to see her face to know it. He could smell the fear emanating from her like a perfume. As much as she tried to struggle out of his grasp, Samantha couldn't break free. Gray couldn't stop himself as much as he tried. His basic instincts getting the better of him. He is now a slave to his predator instincts and she is the poor unfortunate prey that will be devoured. He could feel the monster in him come out. His fangs were already elongated and pressing into her soft neck skin.

NO!

With all the strength and will power that he could muster, Gray pulled himself away from the frightened young woman. His eyes widened as his heart beat fast against his chest. Gray stumbled away from Samantha as he tried to gain his composure, he kept his eyes firmly fixed on the ground determined to not look at Samantha after what had just happened. His features had thankfully returned back to normal before she could see what he really is.

Samantha looked at him, stunned at what had happened. She never thought Gray was the aggressive type when it came to romance. He was usually very sweet and kind whenever they used to hang out at work. Samantha wasn't afraid of Gray anymore but she still was wary of him as he kept his distance from her. Feeling a slight stinging pain she raised her hand to her neck to find a small trickle of blood coming from where he had bit her.

Gray finally glanced up and saw the blood on her fingers and saw the dark red puncture marks on her neck where his lips, then his sharp fangs left their mark. Her blood ran down to her collarbone in a single trail. The dark red blood stood out against her fair skin. Another thing he noticed was the dark red marks indents of where his hand had held her wrists down with his tight grip moments before.

"God, I'm so sorry," He muttered quietly. Gray could feel his chest become heavy as the guilt of harming her weighed down on him.

Samantha cautiously walked over to him.

"Gray it's okay. I'm fine." She tried to reassure him. Gently she placed a hand on his slumped shoulder. Gray cringed away at her touch.

"I'm sorry Samantha, but I have to go," he muttered as he swung open the front door and marched down the stone pathway to his parked motorcycle. Samantha tried to stop him but Gray wouldn't listen to her. He had to get away from her before he could lose control again.

Gray revved the bike engine as soon as he sat down and rode down the quiet empty street, speeding into the night leaving a stunned and confused Samantha behind.

The shiny black Estrada sped through the dimly lit streets of Stilwater at an alarmingly fast speed. Gray had to get home. He had to get out of the open and confine himself before he could pick a random pedestrian walking down the streets and lure them to an alleyway.

The for killing was slowly fading from Gray much to his relief but his still burned and itched to be sated by the warm blood of any defenseless victim. Concentrating on the road and taking deep slow breathes helped him keeping on track to head back to his home across the city where he could confine himself and keep Stilwater safe from himself.

Fifteen minutes later, Gray found himself parking his bike into his garage and marching into his small house in mission beach in the Saints Row district. He marched his way into the small kitchen not even taking the time to turn on the lights. Not that it mattered anyway since he could see perfectly in the dark. His mind was on one thing and he needed to take care of it right away.

Opening the fridge door Gray let the light from the cold storage spill out as he rummaged through the food until he found what he was looking for. Pushed way in the back was a large brown paper bag. Gray took the large bag out of the fridge and walked it over to the counter. The sound of glass clinking could be heard from the bag as he set it down on the tile counter top and opened the bag. Clear glass jars filled with a dark red liquid inside were what the bag carried.

Being so engrossed in pouring one of the jars contents into a mug and drinking it Gray didn't notice the man sitting at the table beside the window on the other side of the kitchen. Not until he heard the man clear his throat did Gray put the mug down from his lips and placed it on the counter with calming ease.

"You know, it's a crime to enter a person house uninvited," Gray turned around to face the man hidden in the shadows until he turned on the lights, revealing the intruder.

If the man was standing, he would be the same height as Gray as well as the same lean toned build of his body. His short length light brown hair looked as if it had been lightly ruffled by his hands. A few strands fell in lazily in front of his steely blue eyes. The square jaw of his very comely face was covered in a light coat of stubble the same color as his hair. One very defining feature about him that he carried is a burn scar that covered most of the right side of his face, from forehead to cheekbone. The scar, large and horrible looking as it is, doesn't dominate his handsome features. In fact, the scar was a real turn on for the ladies. Many have said that it gave him a more rugged dangerous look.

The two stared at each other in tense silence. Both waited to see who would make the first move, if anyone would move. After a couple of minutes, A smile formed on Grays lips and only got larger when the other man began to smile and laugh with Gray. The man got up and walked over to Gray and embraced him in a brotherly hug.

"What are you doing here Cael?" Gray asked as they broke apart. "How did you find me?"

"It wasn't that hard really. I just followed the newspaper reports of unusual animal kills occurring. You should really make sure that when you attack deer and cattle, it's in places that are known for wolf or big animal attacks. Also, you are pretty predictable when it comes to location. Always somewhere filled with corruption and crime and killing. You picked a perfect city to live in."

"What are you doing here?" Gray repeated as he took the mug with his warm drink. "Did my family ask you to look for me?"

"They did. Your mother and uncle were worried when you weren't responding to their calls. They just want to know that you're alright. Nice place by the way. I love the neighborhood," Cael chuckled as he looked around his friends place. Gray had to admit, his home was a bit of a shithole and the Row wasn't any better looking but he didn't want to invest money in a place that he probably wasn't going to be living in for too long.

Gray rolled his eyes. "They act like I haven't been on my own before. I picked this place by the way, because it would be the last place anyone could find me." Gray had been right. Cael searched all the nicer looking districts but never checked the shadier places until the idea had come to him. Raising the mug up to his lips, he took a sip. Gray's face scrunched in displeasure at the taste but swallowed the drink nonetheless. "So how long have you been in the city?"

"About a month." Gray's eyebrow arched in surprise at his friends answer.

"A month? And I'm just finding out about it now?"

"Well before you left so abruptly, you told us to not look for you and to not make any contact with you." True, Gray did recall the farewell he said to his family before he left. "I figured you would run as soon as you got a whiff of me, so I kept my distance and waited for a good time to make an appearance."

Gray nodded. He was surprised that Cael had been in the city for so long with him even knowing. He was sure that he would have caught his oldest friends scent at some point. Then again, Gray hasn't been at full capacity with his senses for a while.

"So I see that you're still drinking that animal stuff?" Cael noticed the grimace Gray was making on his face as he took another sip.

"It's all I can drink, if I don't want to slip up," Gray muttered into the rim of the blue ceramic as he forced down another gulp of animals blood, pigs blood to be exact.

Cael sighed. He didn't understand why his friend kept torturing himself like this. He knows that Gray could control himself, he did it in the past.

"Besides, wasn't my thirst one of the reasons I left home in the first place?" With one last gulp, Gray finished the warm drink. Though it repulsed him, the animal blood at least gave him the nourishment he needed and it sated the thirst that burned his throat, but it never truly satisfied him. Not like human blood could.

"So since you found me, I take it you are going to head back home?" Gray asked, wanting to change the subject.

"Um…not exactly."

Gray, who had been cleaning his used mug, dried the dish and placed it back in the cabinet, turned around to face his friend. "Why not?"

Cael didn't answer right away. "Well…I figured you could use a friend here in the city so, I got an apartment here in the city."

Gray couldn't help but looked shocked at his friends answer.

"What! No you can't be serious. You can't live here, you need to go back home." Gray might have responded a bit harsh to Cael but there was a reason he was living in this crime ridden city. Cael didn't seemed phased by it. In fact he just smiled back at him.

"Sorry but I can't. On top of getting an apartment I also got a job here as well."

"A job!" If Gray didn't seemed surprised before he was definitely now. He left home to keep his family safe, now they were following him.

"Yup, you're looking at the new resident at Stilwater General Hospital. I can finally put that medical degree I got to good use because God knows this city really needs all the help it can get. God knows that this city needs it," Cael chuckled but stopped quickly when Gray wasn't looking anymore amused.

"I left home because of the mess I caused," Gray responded calmly, not and angry calm but one to get Cael to understand him. "I left to get those damned Venatore away from you guys and to lay low for a while."

"You know you can't be the lone wolf forever. Eventually you are going to need help, I just want to be here when you need it."

The small kitchen fell in silence as Gray contemplated Cael's words. Cael has always been by his side and even saved his life more times than he could count. He was also right, Gray can't be the lone wolf for too long, it is too dangerous even for him and Gray knows that Cael was more than capable to watch his back for him. With a sigh, Gray reluctantly nodded in agreement.

"Excellent," Cael smiled as he patted the now equally smiling Gray on the shoulder. "So tell me, what have you been doing the couple years?"

It was well past two in the morning when Gray and Cael were standing beside the front door. Though two years isn't a long time for them, it still felt like a long time for the two. Gray considered him to be a brother and vice versa. It was great for him to have someone he can count on like Cael in the city to be there if he needed help.

"Well you have my address and know where I work so stop by when you can." Luke pulled Gray in a big brotherly hug.

"You know it, see ya later." Gray patted Cael's back before letting go. Cael waved at Gray before turning on the corner of the house where he parked his car.

It was great to talk with Cael again, two years of no contact Gray had a lot to say. He told him of his travels, the odd jobs he did that didn't ask much personal questions. Gray told him about his recent job termination but he managed to leave out the bit with Samantha. There was no point in worrying Cael about his recent near slip-up since nothing fortunately happened.

Though the night was late, Gray wasn't feeling tired. After how the evening went, sleep was the last thing he was feeling. Instead of walking inside the house Gray closed the front door and walked down the steps into his small front yard. In the middle of the lawn was a couple of cushy lawn chairs beside a small round table. Gray walked over to one of the lawn chairs and sat down, his body relaxing into the comfy cushions. The reclined seat allowed him to get a better and more comfortable view of the surrounding city.

From his yard he could see the bums walking around muttering to themselves as they drank from their liquor bottles in wrinkled brown paper bags. The occasional car passed by, bumping their rap music so loud that it rattled the windows of the homes the car was passing by. In the distance he could hear sirens moving through the street as a police car chased down their suspects. Moving his line of sight to the sky, Gray saw the occasional helicopter, or ghetto bird as he has heard most of the Row resident's call them pass by above the neighborhood shining their spotlight light down on the streets. It was truly the city that never sleeps. With all the noise surrounding him, Gray could only think of one thing; just another night in Stilwater.

* * *

 **Just a bit of info for you guys about the new content. First off about the character Cael. I was planning on introducing him into the fifth chapter of the original story but I felt like his character came in too abruptly. His character seemed like someone who would have been in the story since the beginning especially since him and Gray are long time friends, and I mean long time friends if you catch my drift.**

 **Another new thing I added was a small mention about a group called the Venatore. I wont go into much detail about it now because we will learn more about them as the story progresses. However I will tell you that it is a secret society.**

 **Alright well there it is, I hope you readers enjoyed the first chapter and please leave me a review and let me know what you think.**


	2. Run all night

**Hey guys I apologize for posting it so late but I have been working on three other stories that I hope to post soon. Hopefully you will not have to wait so long for the next chapter. It shouldn't take me too long since I already have it written down and just need to type it up.**

 **Alright, with that being said, enjoy the revised chapter 2.**

* * *

The Monster of Stilwater

Ch.2

Run all night

" _Hey Gray, its Samantha…again. Please call me when you get the chance, I just want to talk to you. I know why you left but I just don't understand why you aren't talking to me and I would like to know…and I want to see you again as well. So please, call me back… I've missed you."_

Gray stared at the brightly lit screen of his cellphone as he listened to the voicemail. Two weeks have passed since that night with Samantha. Since then she has been calling Gray's phone but he has ignored all of her calls and deleted all of her texts and voicemails from his phone. He didn't need to read the messages or listen to the voicemails. He didn't need to because he wasn't going to see her again. Gray couldn't, not after what had happened that night. He knew that if he saw her again, Samantha would want an explanation and he would have to tell her the truth, she would demand it and that was something that he could not do. Nobody can know if he is going to be living in Stilwater. It would just be better if he forgot about her. It wouldn't be the first time he's done this and it most likely wouldn't be the last.

Gray took one last look at the voicemail before deleting it from his phone. "Sorry Samantha, but I just can't see you again," he sighed as he pocketed his phone in his loose worn out jeans.

He did feel bad about having to ignore Samantha, she was a really lovely person to be around but he couldn't let her know what he really is. It's the sort of attention he didn't want and it is a danger that he didn't want anyone apart of.

Gray didn't want to think of these things anymore. The thoughts have already plagued him every day these past fourteen days. To get his thoughts away from Samantha Gray turned his gaze from the dark night sky as he rose his body up to a sitting position to look out at the scenery surrounding him below.

High above the city Gray sat lazily atop of one of the highest skyscrapers towering over Stilwaters Downtown district. From up here he could see the cities vast expanse all around him. From up above, the city truly looked breathtaking, peaceful even. A mask to hide what the city really was on the inside.

Gray took a closer look at the streets down below and watched as the lively people went on with their lives as clearly as if he were looking through a magnifying glass. A perk of what he is.

He could see a group of women working the street corners and a crowd of teens crossing the street to a packed pizza parlor to meet up with their friends inside. Gray turned his gaze to another distant street where he watched some bums camping out in front of a Brown Baggers, some with booze of their own in hand sitting on the sidewalk and drinking from the bagged bottles while a few others asked customers going in or out of the liquor store for spare change.

Sight wasn't the only thing enhanced. From every corner of the city, Gray could hear the night life of Stilwater as if h was down on the streets apart of the goings on below. _The city that never sleeps,_ he thought to himself with a smile.

Gray sat up from his spot on the high ledge of the building, resting his hands in the pockets of his worn black leather jacket as he turned his eyes from the city to the sky above him. The dark navy sky was speckled with dazzling stars with only one thing missing from the sky. The moon was nowhere to be seen tonight for it was the night of the new moon. On a night like this, the sky would be at its darkest without the appearance of the bright moon to outshine the vast darkness. _A perfect night for a run._

The young man turned on his heels and walked away from the buildings ledge. Gray came to a halt, the gravel that covered the rooftop crunching under his shoes, stopping just over a half ways from the center of the center of the flat rooftop before turning back around the way he came. Crouching down, Gray got himself into a running position.

He closed his eyes, relaxing his body and taking long deep breaths. Exhaling from his nose, Gray opened his eyes revealing not his usual aqua green pair but two blazing yellow eyes glowing against the dark surroundings. With one last exhale of breath, Gray sprinted across the rooftop, his body leaning forward to give him more speed.

The ledge was coming closer and fast and Gray had no intention of stopping. He readied himself for what was to happen when he reaches the end of the building.

Faster and faster he ran, building momentum until finally the ledge was under his feet and launched himself as hard as he could into the cool night air.

"WOOHOO" Gray yelled over the roar of the wind as he flew through the air. This always has been his favorite part of his runs. The rush of jumping from one tall building to the next with nothing in between him and the ground but the five hundred foot drop to the streets below was intoxicating and exhilarating.

Evenings like tonight were the only nights he could do this and just release that excess energy. Without the moon, no one could see Gray leaping from the buildings. If anyone were to look up at the sky tonight, all they would see is the bright lights that illuminated the large city. They wouldn't be able to see the shadowy silhouette flying in the air beyond that thick blanket of golden light that covers the city of Stilwater.

Being hundreds of feet above the busy streets did not faze Gray at all by the height. He was never afraid of heights nor afraid of falling because he knew it could never kill him. He learned this the hard way years ago.

He could feel his body descending toward the city and he prepares to land on the building just ahead of him. Gray straightens his body and leans forward with his arms stretched outward to catch himself.

Falling from such heights would break bones and tear flesh to any normal human. But for Gray it had no such effect on him as he touched down onto the ledge with such graceful ease. His palms lightly pressed against the cold concrete roof and for a brief few seconds, his body did a handstand until he flipped himself back onto his feet and continued his run across the buildings. The cool air whipped his brown mane of hair behind him as he ran further towards the other side.

Faster! Faster! Higher! Higher! He'd tell himself as he sprinted across the rooftops and climbed up the concrete walls.

Gray felt his blood begin to boil through his veins as his heart pounded against his broad chest. His body trembled as the adrenaline surged through his every fiber. He could feel his body wanting to change, to let his rue form be released, like an itch that had to be scratched it was bothersome and impossible to ignore but he refused. On nights of the new moon, Gray had more control of his beast that lingered beneath his skin but he still remained ever cautious. He wouldn't allow the temptation to overpower his own willpower, he couldn't. After what happened at Samantha's Gray realized he had to be more cautious. He still remembered that night. How he almost murdered her. How her small fragile body felt under his strong tight grasp of his hands.

Gray shook his head, trying to rid the memories plaguing his mind and tried to concentrate on the path ahead.

"Come on, concentrate," he growled to himself. Gray leapt over some exposed pipes and rolled onto the floor. In a fluid motion he got back up and continued his run. "I need to forget about that."

" _ **Why would you want to forget?"**_

Gray's eyes widened, that voice. He recognized that cold malicious voice anywhere. Daemon.

In that moment he forgot where he was and nearly fell over the edge. Gay managed to gain his bearings and jumped off the building just in time but he undershot his target and missed the rooftop. He managed to grab a hold onto the edge by the tips of his fingers as he hanged onto the side.

" _ **Be careful now, it's quite a long drop."**_ Daemon's cold sinister voice echoed in his head. Gray tried to ignore it as he slowly began to lift himself back onto the rooftop. When he made it over the ledge he started walking across the top of the building.

Gray gazed around his surroundings though he didn't know why. It wasn't like he is going to see Daemon casually standing beside him smiling that devious smile of his. Daemon was locked away and Gray would make sure that he never gets out. Unfortunately that didn't stop Daemon from annoying Gray like an evil little conscience.

" _ **Come on, I know that you don't want to forget that night, to forget that beautiful woman— Samantha was her name wasn't it?"**_

Gray continued to ignore him.

" _ **She smelled nice too."**_ Gray walked faster as he tried to ignore that evil voice.

"Stop it," he muttered, finally tired of listening to his other half anymore but like him, Daemon chose to ignore Gray's demand.

" _ **Her soft smooth skin felt good in your hands didn't it? Especially when she began to struggle away from you."**_ Gray shook his head trying to rid the voice taunting him. His anger and annoyance building up inside of him like a bubble about to burst. He tried to remain calm. He didn't want to hear this anymore. He never wanted to hurt her. Even if it was only minimal, Gray knew he could've harmed her much worse if he didn't have such a strong will. Letting her go and running away went against his own natural instincts. Gray is a predator and she was his prey.

" _ **You must have loved it when she began to struggle away from you. You always loved it when they put up a fight."**_

Gray clenched his jaw tight as he released deep breaths through his flared nostrils.

" _ **How about her taste? Her blood had a really sweet taste to it didn't it? You know it did. How long has it been since you tasted human blood so fresh, so sweet? The warmth of it flowing into your mouth—."**_

"ENOUGH!"

Gray's voice bellowed through the air as the anger he had been holding in exploded and ran atop the roof hoping to run away from Daemon. It was futile though, Gray could never run away from him as much as he wished he could.

Gray kept running. Now it was no longer for fun as it was to begin with. Now it was his use for focus, to keep his mind off the urges and feelings growing inside. His control was waning fast, Gray could feel it. This is what Daemon wanted. He wanted Gray to lose control and wreak havoc, like he did in the past. Gray however, wasn't going to give in. He wouldn't give Daemon the satisfaction of winning.

He could feel it happening. As much as he tried to control himself Gray couldn't stop it. His body began to change under the stress of his emotions pulsating through his being, making it harder for him to maintain any composure he had.

Gray's body burned hot and his bones snapped and broke as they started shifting to different places, making Gray growl at the sudden pain pulsing through him. The pain was only temporary as the adrenaline started coursing through his body.

Gray kept running as he felt the transformation continue. He felt his canines grow longer and sharper as well as his claws. His senses became more acute to his surroundings. His senses were running wild. The air was filled with the scent of the city below. Gray could smell the people's emotions from all the way up here atop the skyscrapers. Hearing every noise from every corner of the city was becoming too overwhelming for him. Gray tried to tune everything out but he couldn't. The little control he now had was quickly fading away as the beast became even more riled by the commotion of the city below.

Gray wasn't paying attention to what was ahead and kept running fast towards the nearing edge. In the last second Gray managed to gain some control but it was too late. By the time he realized what was happening, he was already too close to the ledge to stop and toppled over the tall high rise.

Gray clawed at the solid concrete wall hoping to not fall hundreds of feet below but he couldn't get a grip on anything. He was freefalling and fast to the ground below.

With a loud crash, Gray landed hard on a pile of wooden crates in an alleyway. The pain from the fall managed to bring Gray back in control again and sending the beast back into its cage. However his body felt really sore from the fall. As he lied there in the broken pile of wood, Gray looked up once the world stopped spinning around him and stared at the building that he had fallen from. It must have been at least a four hundred foot drop to where he was lying now.

Slowly Gray got himself up from the dirty wet ground and dusted himself off.

"OW!" he cried out. A sharp pain on the right side of his torso made his body jerk at the slight touch. Moving away his black leather jacket Gray saw the cause of such discomfort. A large thick wooden shard had impaled him through his back and sticking out of his side. Gray really wasn't going to enjoy what he has to do.

Gripping the shard from the front, Gray slowly and carefully began pulling it out. A sharp loud gasp escaped his mouth as he took the shard out. It had to be at least twelve inches and most of it was covered in his blood. Relief to have the damned thing out of his side Gray tossed the piece of wood onto the floor and lifted his dirtied tank to see the damage it had done.

A dark red puncture hole stuck out against his olive tanned skin. Blood seeped freely from the open wound and trickled onto the ground. As carefully as he could Gray placed a hand on his wound to apply pressure to stop the bleeding. He winced at the sudden pain but still kept his hand on the fresh wound. His body stiffened and he couldn't help the cry of pain that echoed into the night as he put more pressure on the wound. Within moments the strong pain began to subside and once he removed his blood stained hand Gray saw that the bleeding had stopped.

His ears perked up suddenly. Gray could hear a group of people running his way. _Damn, they must have heard the noise of my fall._

As quick as his injured body could take him Gray limped his way out of the alley and to the train station before anyone could get to the scene.

The train ride back home felt like forever, though it was only a half hour ride back to the Row. Feeling exhausted from the evenings… excitement, Gray just wanted to go home and sleep off the pain throbbing all through his body.

The night didn't go as well as planned but it could have gone much worse. Gray took his phone out of his pocket and examined it for any damages. A few scratches but nothing dire, thank God. He checked the time glowing on his screen. It was half past ten. Putting the phone back in his pocket Gray turned his attention to the inhabitants of the train car. At first it was just him and the bum sleeping on a couple of seats at one end of the car. As the train made a few more stops, more and more people began to take up the vacant space. Late night workers returning home, club hoppers heading to another party and a bunch of other types of people surrounded him much to his displeasure.

Not wanting to catch any suspicious gazes, he zipped up his jacket to hide his bloodstained tank.

Settling back into his seat, he noticed a group of girls sitting across from him were glancing at him and giggling to each other. A few of them gave him flirtatious smiles and waved at him to which he did not return. He wasn't in the mood to deal with anyone, let alone half-drunk party girls so he pulled his hood over his head and crossed his arms over his chest and pretended to sleep. _Just a few more stops and I will be home free._

The train stopped just outside the Red Light district, the last stop before Saints Row.

The party girls got up from their seats and walked over towards the open doors. Before leaving, three of the girls to Gray who was still pretending to be asleep and each slipped him a folded piece of paper into his hands and walked out of the train.

When the doors closed and the trained jerked as it slowly began moving, Gray sat up and unfolded the slips of paper revealing the girls names and there phone numbers with a little 'call me' note scribbled down. He crumpled the notes and threw them onto the floor and continued his pretend sleeping.

The walk from the train station wasn't far from Gray's home in Saints Row, a couple of blocks stood between him and the comfort of his bed.

Gray passed by a few homeless people panhandling for money and taking shelters in there little shanty's and the broken and abandoned furniture in the nearby vacant lot as he made his way to his street. One more street stood between him and his home now. Relief began to fill him as he walked down the street. Nothing was going to stop him from getting home.

Down the street, a guy selling bogus watches tried to sell a few to Gray to which he ignored. The watch vendor cussed Gray out and moved on to sell to someone else. That guy is always ting to sell him watches and other fake or suspicious looking jewelry.

Further down the street, ever closer to his home, Gray was stopped by a streetwalker.

"Hey cutie, I could show you a god time," She said suggestively as she gave him what he can only guess is her sexy smile. It probably could have been if she didn't have lipstick smudged on her front teeth. She wasn't the most comely of the bunch working the street neither. He was about to decline the offer and walk away when he heard some commotion going on across the street.

Three guys clad in yellow baggy shirts were pissed at a tag on the wall. Gray has been in town long enough to know that the guys in yellow are from the gang known as the Vice Kings. The tag on the wall was from another gang that called themselves the Westside Rollerz. From what it looked like, The Rollerz left their mark on the only section of the city yet to be permanently claimed by either three gangs in the city. The Vk's didn't look too happy about this piece of artwork.

"Man fuck the Rollerz!" The fat Vk member yelled.

"Levar, are you gonna let those bitches disrespect us?" The other member angrily asked.

"Shit what'chu think?" Levar smirked as he shook a can of spray paint in his hands and began tagging over the blue graffiti with his bright yellow paint.

It wasn't long before shit hit the fan. A small group of Rollerz came strutting from the opposite side of the street just as that Levar guy started tagging.

Gray watched as the Rollerz caught sight of what the VK's were doing and made their way toward the unsuspecting group. _Well this isn't going to be good._

One of the Rollerz, one that Gray could only assume is the leader of the three walked up to the VK's.

"The fuck ya think ya doin'?" The Roller yelled as he brandish the wooden bat he carried.

"Jus' bein' civic minded is all," the fat VK responded with a smirk.

"That so?"

"Yeah, some dumb ass cracka' went an' shit all over this wall and we jus' cleanin' it up—."

A loud sickening crack echoed through the street and a VK crumpled onto the floor with his now bashed in skull leaking blood onto the sidewalk concrete.

That's when all hell broke loose.

Both gangs pulled out their piece and began shooting at each other. Bullets ricocheted everywhere making everyone on the street scatter for safety. A few unfortunate souls were hit and fell to the ground. One of them, a young teen girl was on the ground with a flesh wound on her leg from a stray bullet, crying as blood trickled from the painful graze.

Gray couldn't leave her here in the middle of the street with bullets flying everywhere. Without a second thought, he charged as quickly as he could through the fighting scooped the girl up in his arms and took her back to safety.

The smell of blood danced around him as he carried her to safety. He held his breath hoping that he could ignore the delicious scent.

Gray made sure to cover her as he ran through the warzone and found safety in an alleyway.

"Are you able to walk?" he asked her, doing his best to not look at her bleeding wound.

"Y…yeah I think so." She staggered a bit as she got up. With Grays quick help, she got her footing. She thanked him and limped her way away from the fight.

Once he saw that the girl was away and safe from any more harm Gray turned to run across the street. The fighting was still going on but he had to cross the street to get home. Getting shot was the least of his problems.

He was about to cross the street when he heard the loud roar of an engine coming closer. Down the street a red and white colored car came screeching fast around the corner towards Gray. As quick as his reflexes would allow him in his state, Gray jumped out of the way just as the cark suddenly parked right where he was standing moments before.

Gray fell hard on his bad side. The sudden shock of pain blurred his vision making it hard for him to distinguish the people running around him.

Once his vision cleared and the pain subsided to its minimal throb, Gray sat up and got a better look at the newcomers.

There were three men seated in the red and white Hollywood. Each of them sported the red colored shirts and bandanas that the cities third gang, The Carnales, sported.

One of them, the one sitting in the passenger seat wore a bandana over the lower half of his face pointed an SMG at the remaining VK and Rollerz.

"Hetor says Buenas Noches." With those last words he began spraying bullets everywhere. He managed to shoot down a VK and a Roller before the car zoomed away. The only remaining Roller managed to shoot the driver. It was like a domino effect: With no driver the car swerved erratically causing it to crash into a brick on the side of a building. Within seconds the car caught fire and was engulfed into a fiery inferno.

The Roller looked proud of himself for what he did and being the last survivor. Or so he thought. That proud smug look was changed to a look of shock as a single loud gunshot rang through the night. A bullet had went through the back of the Rollerz head and out of his left eye. His body fell to the asphalt leaving only one VK, Levar was his name, standing as the victor.

Gray tried to get up but his side was hurting him way too much. The groan of pain that escaped Gray caught Levar's attention and made his way toward the seemingly helpless young man.

Gray stumbled in his attempt to get up and fell back onto the sidewalk. Just as he was about to get up again, he heard the sound of shoes scuffling to a halt behind him. Turning around he found Levar towering over him with the pistol barrel pointed at his face.

"Wrong place, wrong time dawg," Levar stated as if it justified killing Gray in cold blood. Gray could hear the hammer being pulled back until it clicked into place.

With his fast reflexes Gray kicked his attacker in the knee making Levar buckle down on the ground in pain. Gray snatched the gun from the VK and pointed the gun under the cowering man's chin as he held the guy by the scruff of his baggy yellow shirt.

"No d-don't kill me, p-please," Levar begged him. The VK was on the verge of crying. He could hear it in his voice. Gray could smell the scent of fresh piss. He looked down and saw a large dark spot on the VK's baggy jeans. This guy was pathetic. To be afraid to die when he has harmed and killed innocents for no reason. He did so just minutes ago, the aftermath of the vicious fight still burning and scattered around them. Not to mention tried to kill Gray himself for just being at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Gray wanted to kill this worthless piece of scum. These streets would be much safer with one less gangbanger running around.

" _ **Do it, you know you want to."**_

"Shut up!" Gray growled as he shook his head. He turned his attention back to Levar who was staring back at him with a confused and frightened look on his face.

Finally Gray made a decision and grudgingly pistol whipped him with the guns handle with mild satisfaction.

Gray checked his surroundings for anymore gangbangers looking for a fight. There was no one in sight: a few bodies on the street and a car engulfed in flames was all that laid around him.

No longer worried about getting shot killed or run over Gray lied down on the cold damp asphalt and closed his eyes.

"You okay playa?" Gray heard a deep raspy voice.

He opened his eyes and saw a worried looking middle aged black man wearing a black leather coat with a purple turtle neck underneath and a backwards driving cap atop his head. The man stretched out a hand for Gray to help him up from the ground. Looking past the man he noticed a second guy, also wearing a purple polo and carrying a gun as he seemed to be keeping a look out for them. _Great more thugs to deal with._

Gray gave him a skeptical look. He didn't know if he could trust this guy. He didn't seem threatening and at least he wasn't pointing a gun at him. However he still remained vigilant of this guy and the other as well.

Gray knew who this guy is. He's seen him around the Row, surrounded by people clad in purple attire, hanging around that abandoned church a couple blocks away. That man is Julius Little, the boss of the Third Street Saints, a young gang in the making.

"Don't worry playa, I'm not gonna hurt ya."Julius told him, his hand still outstretched. Gray remained hesitant but nodded and accepted the gesture.

"Julius, let's move." Gray heard the other guy call out. The second Saint continued to scan the surroundings, his gun at the ready for any surprises.

Julius helped Gray over to the other side of the street, away from all the wreckage and just in time too. The wrecked car exploded, flinging debris everywhere.

"You gonna be okay?" Julius asked Gray again as he helped him sit on the sidewalk.

"Yeah, I'll be fine," Gray grunted as he lightly rubbed his side.

"That's Troy." Julius pointed to the other guy behind him.

"Hey," Troy responded rather curtly and went back to watching the street. Julius turned his attention back to Gray.

"It seems the Row ain't safe no more son. We got guys fighting over shit that ain't theirs and you in the way, they don't care if you representin' or not."

"Julius, this is no time to recruit—" Troy began but Julius interrupted.

"We need all the help we can get."

"No we need to get our asses outa here!"

"In a minute Troy." Troy looked annoyed but didn't argue any further and turned back to the streets around them.

"What do you say?" Julius continued. "Do you wanna join us and get rid of these other gangs?"

With a sigh, Gray slowly got back up on his feet, still clutching his wounded side.

"Look, it sounds great and all but that life is not for me." _Not anymore._ "Thanks for the offer though." Gray turned away and began walking down the street to get home.

"So you just wanna let those assholes continue to destroy the city? To continue killing innocent people in cold blood?" Julius yelled at Gray.

Gray turned back to face the gang leader.

"And what? You guys are any better than those other gangs?"

"Yes we are."

"Bullshit," Gray chuckled. "Gangs are gangs. There are no such thing as a 'good gang'. None are better than the other. Yeah sure some might be more organized than others but they still kill and rob the innocent and that is something I will not be a part of."

"You're right, there is no such thing as a good gang but the Saints aren't about killing and stealing from the innocent." Julius walked over towards Gray. "We are not that type of gang. I keep my crew in line and make they don't harm anyone that doesn't deserve it. I want to give these people a safer city to live in. Don't you?"

For a few moments, they all stood in silence. The only sound heard was that of the crackling fire from the burning car.

 _Is this guy for real? Does he honestly believe that he has that much control over his own crew members to make sure that they wouldn't harm anyone without his command?_ Gray heard many things about Julius. Most of how strong of a leader he is but he couldn't have that much of influence over them.

In the distance, police sirens could be heard ringing in the neighborhood, getting louder as they came closer.

Troy ran over to Julius and yelled, "Julius we have to go now!"

"Fine Troy." Julius started following Troy but stopped short.

"Look, you need a gang to fight a gang. Come by the church if you wanna be a part of the solution. I saw how you handled those assholes and we could use a guy like you." With those final words Julius and Troy ran off down the street disappearing into the night.

A couple of police cars turned onto the street, shining their spotlights onto the scene. Taking this as his time to leave, Gray continued down the street until he reached the corner and slipped into the darkness just before the spotlight could shine down on him.

Gray couldn't help but think of what Julius had told him. He had to admit, what he said was true. The gangs are a huge problem in this city and they were getting even more violent by the day. Tonight wasn't even the worst the gangs have done in the city. It certainly wasn't the first turf war he's witnessed since moving here. He has seen many innocent bystanders get hurt or killed in the crossfire. He has seen how these thugs treat the citizens and steal from them. Gray has tried to stop as much of these acts as much as he could but it just isn't enough. Maybe Julius is right, you need a gang to fight a gang. _Maybe I should go and check out his gang and see if they are as Julius described._

Gray finally made it home. The small house never looked so inviting to him.

Limping up the stone pathway he unlocked the front door and walked into the small living room and making his way to the bathroom in the narrow hallway.

He turned on the shower and put his hand into the raining water to make sure that it was hot enough. Nothing would feel better to him right now than a steaming hot shower to soothe his sore body.

Gray undressed himself carefully and tossed the dirty clothes into the black plastic hamper beside the sink and got into the steaming shower.

The water truly felt amazing on is aches and pains. The dirt and blood washed away from his body and swirled down the drain.

A few minutes later, Gray turned off the water and got out of the shower when he felt clean enough and refreshed. Well, he was still pretty achy but at least he was finally clean.

He wrapped a towel around his waist after drying his hair and body as he made his way across the hall and to his bedroom.

His bedroom was simple. A full sized bed with black and grey striped sheets and pillow cases with a black painted wooden nightstand on each side took up one side of the room. A black dresser beside the door took up another side beside the closet door.

Gray walked over to the full body mirror that stood alone in the corner and examined the wound he got from falling. It was still in the process of healing but it still looked too fresh for Gray's liking. Even a wound this bad should have healed much faster. At least it wasn't bleeding anymore.

Gray carefully patched up and taped the gauzed over the wound. Once he finished dressing the wounds, Gray slipped into a pair of black boxer briefs and carefully crawled into bed for the long awaited rest. He wanted to be refreshed and feeling much better by the morning if he wants to hear what Julius wants to say.

As soon as he covered his bruised and sore body with his comforter and his head rested on the soft pillows, his body relaxed and almost instantly fell into a deep sleep.


	3. What a first day!

**Hey guys I'm back with the next chapter.**

 **By the way, I forgot to mention something in my previous author notes. You might have noticed the name Daemon. Well, I forgot to tell you that I changed Warean's name. Yeah, as I kept rereading my chapters to redo them, I kept saying the name in my head and it just didn't seem to be a fit name for a very bad guy as opposed to Daemon, which not only sounds much cooler it is a better fit for his evil side since it means Demon in Latin. A fitting name don't you think?**

 **Well enough small talk, hope you all enjoy the revised chapter and please leave a review to let me know what you think.**

 **Oh and disclaimer: I do not own anything Saints Row. (I know I kept forgetting to type this.)**

 **The Monster of Stilwater (A reboot)**

* * *

 **CH.3**

 **What a first day!**

The bright morning rays of sunlight beamed through the dusty window of Gray's bedroom. Beside the window the young man slept away in his large comfy bed. His sheets were tangled around his long bare legs from the constant tossing and turning he did throughout the night. Two of his four pillows were lying in a tiny pile on his cold wooden floor beside the bed. One pillow Gray managed to keep under his head while the other he held close to his bare chest as his body relaxed into the soft mattress. Gray tends to cuddle in his sleep, even when he doesn't notice that he does it.

It had been one of those nights when Gray had a hard time falling asleep. Bad dreams of his past liked to surface once in a while and give him a hard time.

As he lied in the bed, Gray stirred a bit and turned his body around so that he is now lying on his stomach. His back muscles flexed a bit as he slid his toned arms under his pillow and relaxed as he continued to sleep. The outside light shined over his bare back, highlighting the set of long streak marks of old wounds that blemished his olive skin.

Over on the nightstand the time on the sleek black digital clock turned and the alarm went off. Gray had set his alarm to The Mix, his favorite radio station.

Gray slowly stirred awake, taking his time to sit himself up and rubbed the sleepiness from his bright aqua green eyes. He untangled the dark gray sheets from his legs as the song on the radio clock ended.

"That was Sweet Dreams by the Eurythmics," The radio DJ announced in a rather peppy tone. "The time is now 8:15 on this beautiful sunny Friday morning in Stilwater—"

Gray turned off the alarm and got up from the plush mattress. He adjusted the waistband of his boxer briefs as he walked across the bedroom towards the mirror in the corner and examined his body closely. The scratches were nothing more than faded red lines instead of deep gashes and the dark purple bruises that marred his flawless body were beginning to fade as well.

It has been a few days since that late night run and sustained these injuries. The healing process would have been much faster but because of the nights of the New Moon most of Gray's supernatural powers were gone until the moons cycle began anew. That night was the first night of the new moon and last night was the final night, thankfully he will be returning to better form.

Gray moved his hands to the gauze covering the spot where the splintered piece of wood impaled through him and gently peeled it away. The wound had completely closed up but left a nasty round scar where the gaping hole had resided under his ribs and still felt a little tender at the touch.

The new wounds weren't the only markings that he could see in the mirror. On the left side of his chest just mere centimeters beside his heart a pale thin three inch scar ran horizontally across his upper torso. His finger traced the scar line, remembering the night he received it. Sometimes he could still feel the sudden sharp pain of the long blade of the dagger piercing through his chest. He could never forget that night, it was the night that forever changed his life.

Right where his heart resides is a black tattoo inked into his skin. To most people the design would look like any other tribal tattoo that a douchebag frat boy would get at any Rusty's Needle parlor around the city just to look like a badass to his friends. However Gray's tattoo isn't like those other kind. No, his is an original design of his own making. Back in the day, he would leave this mark after committing his murders on his victims or drew it in their own blood on nearby walls when there was more than one body. It was a symbol that was widely known for one thing; striking fear into the people who come across it. It was a calling card, a way for him to proudly show the people that it was him who committed the brutal murder. Now it is just a painful and permanent reminder of his dark and bloody past that still haunts him after all these years.

Gray gave himself one last look over before he walked away to the dresser on the other side of the room. He opened the second drawer and pulled out a navy blue T-shirt and moved to the closet where he pulled a pair of black jeans. He slipped on the jeans first and buckled the black leather belt as his feet slid into a pair of converse he left out. Gray picked up his shirt from the dresser top and carefully slipped it over his head and torso as to not aggravate his slowly healing bruises and gently brushed out any wrinkles on his shirt. On top of the dresser is a small rectangular wooden box that Gray has used to hold his prized possessions. He opened it and took out the one object that he truly holds dear: A worn thin black leather necklace with two loops, each holding an item. Gray held the necklace in his hand and examined what the thin leather rope was holding. On the shorter loop closer to his throat hanged a silver pendent of a wolf's head. On the longer loop rested a thick silver ring with a clear blue gemstone the size of a man's thumbnail attached to the band. Engraved on the stone in a silvery ink was a coat of arms; A bow with an arrow piercing a full moon. Gray traced the smooth band where the Latin words 'Sumus venantium' were engraved into the metal.

"We are hunters," he muttered to himself as he put on the necklace. Raising the ring to his lips, Gray gently kissed the cold ring before he let the ring fall to the center of his chest and where it carelessly dangled around his neck. Of all the possessions he owned, the pendent and the ring are his most treasured. It's not because of their worth but because of who gave him the items. He could care less about everything else he owned as long as he had these two items as they once belonged to one of the most important women in his life. They were all he had left...of her.

With a sigh Gray turned to the door and walked out of the room.

The coffee maker beeped, signaling that it was finished brewing. Gray peeled his gaze away from the news on the TV and got up from the couch to serve himself.

Gray walked over to one of the cabinets and pulled out a dark blue mug from one of the top shelves. On the mug the faded words **ILLYTHIA PREPATORY SCHOOL** were printed in white along with the schools crest.

He poured the fresh hot coffee into his mug and placed it onto the countertop. The coffee wasn't ready just yet, it still needed one more thing.

Gray made his way to the fridge and opened the door. There were a few things in there; a carton of eggs some bread and deli meat along with milk cheese and a few condiments. In the bottom corner of the fridge is the large brown paper bag that he kept his jars of animal blood inside. Gray opened the wrinkled bag and pulled out the last jar, twisting the lid off and raised the half-filled container just under his nose and inhaled the bloody scent. His face scrunched up in disgust as the putrid scent of the thick red liquid lingered in his nose and his mouth. Animal blood never smelled as good or even tasted as good as humans.

"Still fresh," he mumbled grudgingly as he poured the contents into his coffee and stirred it together. When he was done stirring he took a large swig of the hot drink. The blood still tasted terrible but the coffee made it taste less appalling. The hot drink soothed the dry feeling in his throat and the growing hunger building inside him since he woke up this morning. Gray can say one thing about this animal blood, it sated him enough as well as the monster… at least for the moment.

Gray took another sip before walking back to his fridge where a notepad was hanging by a magnet where he wrote his list of items he needed to buy. Picking up the pen hanging from a thin piece of string beside the notepad Gray wrote down **Buy more blood** and tore the piece of paper away and pocketed it as he walked out of the kitchen.

A few days after deciding that he was going to stay here in the city, Gray made deals with a few butchers willing to supply him with without asking questions and in return he would pay them handsomely for their services.

Gray took another sip as he sat on the couch to relax and drink the rest of his coffee while he watched TV.

The day had barely started and already there was commotion that could be heard all around the district of Saints Row. Just across the street Gray could see a man running from a couple of cops as he rolled his bike out from his garage.

"Hey Gray man!"

Gray glanced over at the house next to his and saw his neighbor relaxing in a lawn chair with a blunt in his mouth while waving at him. The guy is a third year student at Stilwater University. Gray considers the guy a good friend but he is always a bit out of it because of his constant pot smoking. In fact the smell of pot is so strong on him that people have gotten a contact high just passing by him.

"Trieger man what's up?" Gray greeted him back.

"Nothing much man, just chillin' before heading to class," Trieger smiled as he puffed out a thick cloud of cannabis smoke. "Got an exam today and I need to be sharp if I want to pass."

"Yeah, I can tell." Gray could smell the strong acrid scent wafting in the air. Luckily he couldn't get a contact high from the smoke. The drug isn't strong enough to affect him. "But aren't you supposed to already be in class?"

"Dunno, what time is it?"

Gray checked the time on his watch. "It's almost ten."

When Gray saw his neighbor jump up, it was probably the fastest he has seen him move yet, even if he was more high than the average person should be.

"Shit! You're right I should have been gone already!" Trieger quickly stumped the blunt out on his arm rest and pocketed the half burnt drug into his shirt pocket before running back into his house.

Gray shook his head and chuckled at the antics of his friend. _How is that guy still in college? Hell, those professors are probably as stoned as there students in class,_ he thought as he drove the black Estrada down the street to the abandoned church used for the Saints Row headquarters.

Gray turned the engine off and pocketed his keys but he didn't move from the bike just yet. For the past few days since getting the invite to join, Gray has drove to the decrepit church but he never went in. He is supposed to be laying low, to not draw attention to himself. That's why he's living in the crappiest part of the city. But now he is getting involved in the cities problems. He didn't want to continue to live a violent life, he's been through centuries of violence already. But if this Julius guy is telling the truth and he wants to bring an end to the growing violence and gang wars then this city will find peace. If Gray should join, he could end the fighting even faster.

With his mind finally set, Gray swung his leg over the bike and stood up to walk from the church parking lot and to the building itself.

Gray made his way up the pathway to the abandoned church. The church looked like most of the other abandoned buildings in the Row; tagged from top to bottom, windows broken and covered by some cheap plywood boards. In simpler terms it was a total shithole. Why Julius picked this place to house the Saints, Gray will never know.

Noticing the sound of voices coming from the other side of the church Gray walked over to the courtyard where a large number of men and woman alike clad in purple were all standing. All of them had their attention turned to the building.

So far Gray managed to go unnoticed as he made his way through the crowd of people until finally he found a spot beside a tree where he could get a better view of what everyone was looking at, or who in this case.

Gray could see Julius standing on the steps of the church with Troy standing in the background as he addressed the crowd.

"…Everyone here knows what we need to do. Those bitches be ridin' around thinkin' they own these streets. I don't care what flags they're flyin'… Rollerz Carnales Vice Kings… no one's makin' this nigga scared to walk the Row. We about to lock this shit down… RIGHT NOW!"

The entire courtyard erupted into cheers. Gray had to hand it to Julius, he certainly knows how to inspire people. Hell even he felt a little bit inspired by his words.

One of the guys, an Asian with spiky hair and white frosted tips wearing a pair of purple shaded sunglasses was the loudest of them all.

"Fuck yeah!" He hollered. The guy turned around for a second to high five a friend next to him and did a double take when he caught a glimpse of Gray.

"Yo, who the fuck's this guy?" He asked a little too loudly. The whole courtyard suddenly became silent as everyone turned their attention to the new comer. Gray could feel the air thicken with hostility as they glared at him and circled around him, brandishing their weapons.

"Troy and I found him," Julius explained, though it did little to relieve the hostile tension. "We gonna see if he'll ride with us."

"Julius if he wants to ride with the Saints he's gotta be canonized." The guy said with a dark grin spreading on his face.

Gray rolled his eyes. _Great, just fucking great. I get to get beaten up by a bunch of thugs._

"Hey he's right Julius," Troy retorted with a shrug. "Everyone had to do it."

Julius turned to Gray. He almost looked a little guilty for what he is forced to command. "You ready for this playa?"

Before Gray could even give Julius an answer some of the Saints circle around him, trying to enclose him and take away any advantage he might have. With no other choice but to fight, Gray readied himself for the onslaught. Hopefully he could end it shortly.

Gray could feel them trying to get closer. They were an arm's length away from him as they tried to catch him unguarded but Gray kept a close eye on them, waiting for one of them to attack him.

One guy finally got ballsy and ran at Gray from behind, thinking he would see him coming. He was wrong. Gray sensed the attack and reacted as quickly as he could. The guy charged at Gray with a heavy lead pipe in his hand and was about to swing it at his back when Gray turned around just in time and caught the pipe with his hands. The thug tried to break Gray's grip on the weapon but he just held on tighter. He could feel his fingers denting the thick metal in his strong grip.

Gray sensed another person coming behind him. Acting fast he thrust the pipe back at the guy, hitting him hard in the stomach. He keeled over gasping for air. Gray quickly spun around and used the pipe on the incomer, smacking him over the head knocking him out cold on the grass.

Before he could turn around to the five others circling him, he felt a strong solid punch crash into his jaw. The impact sent him falling onto the ground. The pipe he held slipped from his hands and rolled away from him. Gray tried to get himself back up but someone kicked him hard in his stomach while another stomped on his back making his body fall flat onto the ground.

As he lied there, he could feel his heart thumping hard and his breathing getting heavier and more rapid as he kept getting attacked. A low deep growl rumbled in his chest as he felt his anger rising within. This isn't good. He needed to end this soon.

The Saints stopped attacking him, thinking that he was done getting beat on. However, Gray slowly got up as he tried to calm himself. Just as he was about to get up from his knees, one of the thugs tried to kick him down again. But Gray caught his foot with both hands before it could make contact with his stomach again.

In a swift movement Gray twisted the foot, making a nice loud cracking noise as the bones snapped. The guy pleaded with Gray to stop which he finally did. The guy fell down to the ground moaning in pain as he crawled away from the fight.

Another guy came running at him with readied fists. This time, Gray would be ready for the attack.

The Saint threw hard punches but they weren't fast enough. Gray bobbed and weaved each jab he threw with such ease. Each throw looked as if it was in slow motion to him.

Gray began to sense the Saint was beginning to tire from all of the blocked and deflected blows he was throwing and decided to end it when Gray felt another coming into the fight.

One of the Lady Saints tried to make a move as Gray was kept distracted, or so she thought. She ran and tried to jump on his back, only to have Gray catch her with such quick reflexes. He spun her around and tossed her at the other Saint. Gray didn't hit women but that didn't stop him from defending himself from them in some other way.

The rest of the gang watching the canonization began cheering Gray on as he continuously took out anyone that tried to attack him, with little effort on his part. But he was restraining himself greatly, not wanting to do any permanent harm or worse. That in itself was much harder for him when he just felt like wanting to snap their necks to make it easier for him. But he was becoming more aggressive with his attackers; breaking bones and knocking them unconscious. If he could, Gray would have avoided such drastic actions but the canonizers were persistent and he had to prove himself if he wanted to become a part of the gang.

Finally Julius stepped in when Gray held an unconscious Saint by the scruff of their purple T-shirt and told him them to stop. Gray let the guy go and allowed his friends to carry his body off to the church.

Troy walked over to Gray and held out his hand.

"You earned your colors today," Troy told him as they shook hands. The rest of the Saints cheered and whistled to welcome the new recruit. They all came over and congratulated him personally. One of them, a young black man wearing a large jean jacket over a purple polo buttoned all the way with a gold chain hanging around his neck and fashioned a purple upside down visor worn to the side, walked over to him and patted him on the back.

"I'm Dex," The Saint announced to him.

"Hey, I'm Gray," He responded back to him.

"Yo, that was some impressive shit! The only other Saint that kicked ass like that was Johnny." Dex pointed to the guy Gray immediately recognized as the one who called him out earlier. Johnny nodded when he heard his name.

"Shit took me half the time," he said with a cocky grin. The guy, Johnny, strutted over to the two guys.

"Hey man, sorry for callin' you out. No hard feelins' aight?" Johnny held out his hand. "Gotta weed out all the posers and wannabee's ya know?"

Gray looked at him for a sec. Maybe this guy wasn't a complete asshole after all. Maybe they could be friends. With a smile he took Johnny's hand and shook it as a truce.

Julius came over to Gray and pulled him into a handshake/hug.

"Welcome to the Third Street Saints. Now let's get down to business."

Julius turned away from Gray to look upon the rest of his gang to address them all.

"If we're serious about takin' the Row, then we gotta let those muthafucka's know what time it is." Julius turned to Gray to address him specifically. "Now you break it down and it's all about respect. Get enough of it they gonna back off and we're gonna move right on in. We got some friends in town that could use some help. Of course, you can always drop anyone flyin' the wrong flag. I don't care how you do it as long as words gets out about the Saints. You feel me?" Gray nodded to show he understood.

"Good," Julius gave Gray a pat on the back. "With you hangin' with us, we can make the Saints name mean something around this city." Julius gave him one last smile before walking away back to the church. Troy walked over, taking Julius' place.

"Hey kid, you got a piece?" He asked.

Gray shook his head. He didn't have a need for one in a while.

"That's okay. There's a Friendly Fire around the corner, we can get you one there. Don't want you fightin' without a weapon."

Troy led the way to out of the courtyard and Gray followed him up the street to the firearms store near the corner.

"Welcome to Friendly Fire," the kind portly middle aged store clerk said to Gray and Troy as they entered the small square store. "Feel free to browse the merchandise and let me know when you find something that catches your fancy."

Gray walked over to the glass counter and examined the collection displayed. There were some very nice SMG's and rifles. The shotgun collection was pretty impressive as well but he was going to need something less conspicuous to carry on him.

Gray moved over to the display case holding the pistols. This selection was nice as well. Each one of them would do him nicely out there.

He called for the clerk and asked him to open the display case to take out a few to try. The clerk did as he was asked and placed the selected pistols on top of the glass counter.

He first tried out the revolver. The clerk began telling him about it though Gray wasn't really paying attention. His mind was on the weapon in hand and the familiar feeling it brought back. He spun the cylinder like the actors did in those old western films.

"Kid, do you know how to handle a gun?" Gray heard Troy ask. He glanced over at his new friend with a smirk and began to spin and twirl the weapon around his finger, aiming it at various objects and pulled the trigger pretending to shoot at them. Gray looked over at the two men staring at him in awe at the performance he gave them. Finally he placed the revolver against his side as if he was putting it in a holster. _Just like riding a bike, you never forget._

"Okay Mr. Show off, so you do know how to handle a gun," Troy chuckled.

Gray left the gun store with an NR4. He like the revolver but it wasn't exactly suited for the type of job he would be doing. Walking out of the store, Gray hid the newly acquired weapon in the back of his pants.

It wasn't long before the two heard commotion coming from down the street. Gray and Troy saw some VK's harassing a few pedestrians around the corner.

"Alright kid, time to put your skills into action. What you say we take that piece and start cleaning the Row?"

"I say—" Gray cocked the pistol and held it at the ready. "—it's cleaning day."

Troy looked at Gray with a confused look before busting out in a fit of laughter.

"Oh my God that was so cheesy," Troy managed to say in between laughs. Gray smiled and laughed with him. "You're a funny kid."

When they calmed down from laughing, Troy pointed back to the yellow clad group ahead of them.

"Alright, let's take out those fuckers." Gray nodded and the two made their way toward the unsuspecting group.

The two managed to silently walk right behind one and placed the barrel on the back of one of the guy's head and pulled the trigger. Before the rest could pull out their guns, Gray shot each of them in the head with perfect precision. Just when they thought it was over, a loud sound of gunshots ranged through the air getting their attention to see another group running towards them.

Troy glanced at Gray and saw that he was already running towards them. He couldn't believe what he saw; the kid was running at them even though they are all shooting at him! It was a miracle or sheer dumb luck that none of their bullets hit him. It amazed him even more that the kid seemed unafraid of the bullets whizzing past him.

By the time Troy figured it was okay to get out from his safe spot, Gray had already killed the entire group of VK's.

Troy stood in the in amazement at the new recruits kills that surrounded him. _Seriously, who the hell is this kid?_ Troy thought. _Half the guys on the police force aren't even this precise when they shoot. This kid is more than some boy trying to play gangster like the others and I intend on finding out who he really is._

"Hey great job kid," Troy praised. There moment of triumph was soon interrupted by the loud screeching noise of tires skidding on the asphalt. The two turned around to see two yellow Comptons flying down the street towards them.

"Quick, get in the car!" Troy yelled pointing at the only available car; a bright yellow VK Capshaw. With no other choice, the two ran to the car. Gray jumped into the driver's seat as Troy took the passenger seat and kept a look out while Gray hotwired the car since the keys were lost somewhere.

The engine roared to life once the right wires were crossed and Gray stepped on the gas pedal and rode off down the street.

It wasn't long before the cars caught up with them, surrounding the stolen vehicle on both sides. Gray took a chance to glance at the VK's to his left. The passenger had a gun already pointed at him. Wasting no time Gray swerved the car and hit the VK's with such force that the driver lost control of the car and crashed into a couple of parked cars on the side of the road, leaving just the car on the right to deal with.

"Keep driving!" Troy hollered over the roar of the wind whipping past them from the topless car. "I'll handle them."

Gray nodded and did as he was told.

Faster and faster he drove down the busy streets swerving and weaving between the fellow drivers and pedestrians hoping to lose the VK's.

"You might wanna slow down a bit! I don't wanna die just yet!"

"Don't worry," Gray retorted with a sly grin. "I got this."

Indeed he did. Gray had full control of the three ton machine he was driving. He wasn't going to wreck. Before he would get close to anything, his instincts would stop him hitting any of the cars. If he were to crash, it would be on purpose.

The VK's were a persistent bunch, Gray had to admit. Even though he had driven through the busiest streets and tried to get lost amongst the sea of cars but somehow they were always found. Gray tried to swerve into them like he did the other car before but this driver was much better behind the wheel than the other and managed to move out of the way before he could make contact.

Troy knew that this was going to go on for a longtime and sooner or later they were going to hit innocents. Property damage has already happened when that VK car hit the two parked cars earlier. It was lucky that they didn't hit anyone, yet. So he decided to do something bold.

He put in a new clip into his pistol, making sure he was prepared for what he was about to do.

"Alright, I'm gonna get rid of these fuckers," Troy said as he rolled down the window. "Just keep straight and not to make any sharp turns or I'll miss."

Troy took a deep breath and exhaled before sticking out the top half of his body from the window and aimed at the yellow Stiletto not far behind them. The first two shots hit the hood and bounce off the bumper but the third managed to hit the front right tire making the car swerve but not stop. Troy aimed at the left front tire and hit it. The front half of the car skidded on the asphalt before being flung into the air and landing on its top in the middle of the street causing a pile up behind the wrecked car.

The car was still with silence as Gray and Troy stared at each other when the two all of a sudden cheered at their latest victory.

"That was some awesome driving kid," Troy complimented Gray and patted him on the shoulder. "Hey lets head over to Freckle Bitches, I'm jonesin' for a fun bag.

Gray nodded and made a turn on the road to head over to the nearest restaurant.

Gray parked to the side of the fast food joint and Troy opened the door to get out. Before Gray could drive off, Troy walked over to the driver's side.

"You did really good out there for your first day, kid. I'm gonna call Julius and make sure he knows how you did."

"Thanks Troy," Gray smiled.

"No problem, just keep up the good work." Troy backed away from the car. "See ya later."

"Yeah see ya." The two waved at each other as Gray slowly drove the car out of the parking lot.

Once Gray was out of sight, Troy pulled out his cell and searched through the contacts until he found the name he wanted and pressed call.

The phone rang a couple of times before a man's voice answered the call.

"Detective Alvarez, speaking."

"Hey Emilio, its Troy."

"Oh hey bro, how've you been? I haven't heard from you since you took that undercover job."

"Yeah that's actually what I wanted to talk to you about." Troy looked around to make sure no one was around eavesdropping. "We got a new recruit and I want a background check on him."

"Uh— yeah sure I can do that for you. What's his name?"

"His name is Gray."

"His name is Gray?" Alvarez scoffed. "That's it? Do you know if it's even his first or last name?"

"I don't know but I did take a picture of him. I'll send it to you so you can try to match him with the profiles in the database."

"Yeah okay sure, but it will still take a while. We are really busy down here at the precinct."

"That's okay, I don't need it right away. Just send me what you have when you get the chance."

Troy could hear some yelling on Alvarez side of the line. Sounds like the Lt. wasn't too happy about something.

"Will do man, hey I gotta go." Alvarez quickly responded before hanging up.

"Pretty soon, I'll know who you really are Gray, and find out why you're being so secretive about yourself," Troy said as he playfully tossed his small phone from one hand to the other.

He opened his phone and dialed a number. After a few rings someone picked up.

"Whatchu got for me Troy?"

"Hey Julius—"

Gray was halfway down the freeway heading back to the Row when the 80's tune he set for his ringtone went off. He picked up the phone and checked it to find that it was Julius calling and pressed the answer button.

"Troy told me how you did today. I wanted to congratulate you personally on your excellent work. Word has begun to go out that the Saints ain't bullshittin'. Now we gotta lock our rep down. I told an associate of mine that you would be stoppin' by to help him out."

"Alright, I'll head over right now."

"Excellent. That's what I like to hear. I'll text you the address and you can meet up with him." Gray heard the call end on the other side. A moment later he received the address for the next mission set upon him.

The associate Julius had told Gray about worked in the Saints Row district. What Julius forgot to mention was that the guy was a pimp and Gray wasn't cool with the idea of working alongside one. If Julius hadn't told him to do this mission he would have said no. But alas Julius is his boss now and he must do as commanded.

Gray eyed the guy from across the street in his shiny black bootlegger. He had to abandon the Vice King car before entering Saints territory lest he wanted to get shot by his new friends. He was going to pass by the church where his bike was parked and decided to change vehicles since there was a possibility of getting shot at and he wanted to have some cover to protect him. He drove the bike back home and exchanged it for his car before heading over to the location he now resided.

The man wasn't hard to spot. Most pimps stuck out like a sore thumb with their bright colored outfits and this guy was no different. Though while the others looked like pimps that came out of a 70's flick, this guy at least looked a little more contemporary. He wore a bright purple suit and a lot of gold jewelry as he carried around a blinged up goblet with the word PIMP encrusted with shimmering rhinestones.

With a sigh, Gray reluctantly opened the car door and made his way across the street.

The pimp saw Gray walking up to him and went to greet him.

"What's going on bro?" The pimp asked as he took the cigar from his mouth and blew out the smoke. "Name's Will. Julius called and said you would be stoppin' by. You lookin' for a little sumpin' sumpin'? Cause if so I can let Peggy over there give you a ride…"

Gray's eyes followed to where the pimp was pointing, though he instantly wished he hadn't.

Peggy was homely looking and vastly overweight but still managed to wear very revealing clothes, which looked like were being eaten by her rolls.

When she bent down to what Gray imagined is her sexy pose, her shorts disappeared behind her large gut and revealed more of her ass than he wanted to see.

Instinctively Gray turned away and put his hands up like a shield to block the frightening sight from his eyes. Peggy flipped him off and walked away.

"Sorry!" Gray hollered at her feeling guilty for his actions. He moved his arms around to repeat the same movement. "It was a muscle spasm, I swear! I think you're um— very pretty?"

Peggy glared at him for his failed attempt at his apology and turned back to flagging down any willing customers.

"Look brotha—" Will continued with a sigh. "I gotta be honest… I'm tryin' to get a business started here but right now the only hoe I got is so fugly blind muthafucka's turn her down."

Peggy overheard the comment and flipped the pimp off as well.

"Now if you can bring me some of those fine honey's who are turnin' tricks for other pimps— I'd be able to start seein' some real money."

"But I ain't askin' somethin' for nothin'—" Will quickly added when he saw Gray looking reluctant to help. "I mean you help me out, I'll cut you in on what the girls make and I'll spread the word that the Saints are the real deal."

He thought that Gray didn't want to do this job for free but that was not the case. He didn't want to take from the girl's hard earned money they got from such a degrading job.

Gray was hesitant to agree but he had to. The Saints needed all the support they could get and it started with this man standing before him. But he didn't want to give him girls that he was only going to abuse like the other pimps he's seen doing around the city.

Will seemed to have noticed the uncertainty of their arrangement on Gray's face.

"Don't worry brotha, I ain't gonna hurt my girls like those other asshole's do, I'm above all that shit. Momma raised me to be a gentleman." The pimp held out his and for Gray to shake. _Guess I have no other choice._ Gray took his hand and shook it, cementing there temporary partnership.

"Ha ha, that's what I'm talkin' about," Will smiled. "Alright here is the first place I want you to go…"

1 hour later

Gray jumped and slid over the hood of one the parked cars to take cover as the enraged pimp tried to shoot him with his pimpcane shotgun. Some of the bullets lodged into the side of the car while the others ricocheted off the metal and flew into different directions.

Pedestrians were scattering in all different directions screaming as they ran up and down the street trying to avoid becoming a casualty in this fight.

Gray stood up from his crouching position just enough to see through the shattered window. Across the street he saw a couple of the pimp's girls cowering behind a public mailbox. Not too far from them did he see the pimp reloading his weapon.

"You think you can just drive into my neighborhood and steal my bitches away from me?" The pimp yelled at Gray.

He saw the young man peering through the window and aimed the shotgun at him and pulled the trigger.

Gray ducked down onto the asphalt street just in time, narrowly missing the bullets that passed through the broken window.

"These bitches are MY property and I will kill anyone who tries to take my things!"

Anger welled up in Gray as he heard those pimps words echo through the street. Gray has always had a certain hatred for people who claim other people as their 'property' like a slave. It's a feeling that stemmed from personal experience.

His hands clenched into fists so tight that blood that they were shaking as the anger was becoming too much to bear for this scum of the Earth. He wanted to just jump over this car and rip this excuse of a human's throat out and watch him die.

But he wasn't like that anymore and he couldn't do that in the open even if he wanted to for risk of being exposed. He had to have more restraint, however that didn't mean that he couldn't hurt him.

Taking a deep breath and exhaling slowly, Gray got up and aimed his new pistol at the pimp. The first bullet hit him in the arm, his shooting arm and he dropped the shotgun onto the ground. Gray shot him again, this time hitting the pimp in the calf of his left leg.

The pimp slumped to the floor in agony as the bullet made its home in his bone and blood trickled from the wounds.

Gray walked over to the pimp and stood over him, his yellowing eyes looking glaring at him with a look of pure hatred. He put away his pistol and instead picked up the pimpcane shotgun on the floor and aimed it under the scumbag's chin, making sure that he could feel the cold metal of the barrel on his skin.

"I HATE people who treat others like property," Gray gritted angrily as he pressed the barrel deeper into the pimps flesh. The pimp looked up at him and Gray could see the person he truly is: A small pitiful man who needs to boss and hurt people in order to feel big and in charge.

Gray could see that the pimp wanted to do something to him but all he could do was curse at him. What else could he do? He was shot up and Gray held his weapon under his chin waiting to shoot.

The man was harmless now so Gray did the noble thing and instead of killing the guy he smacked him with the barrel right in the temple and left him on the ground for the police to find and do with him what they will. Gray wiped down the shotgun making sure no fingerprints were on the weapon and dropped it beside the unconscious body. He didn't kill in cold blood anymore, no matter how bad the person is.

Once the feeling of anger subsided and he felt calm again did he make his way to the cowering girls. They were afraid of him, he could tell.

He crouched down to them, slowly as he could to make sure he didn't frightened them anymore than they already are.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you," He kindly told them. The two looked up at him with a look of doubt at the man who had just shot their pimp right before their eyes, of course they would be uncertain of his trust. Especially with them being with a man who constantly hurt them.

Gray softened his expression and presented them with a gentle smile. The smile always works on the girls and they were no exception.

The two relaxed and each took his outstretched hands he offered to them and helped them up. For a moment the three stood there in a slightly tense silence. What happened next was unexpected: the two women lunged at him. For a split second he thought they were attacking him but he soon realized that they were actually hugging him, tightly, and crying into his shoulder as the joy of no longer working for their abusive pimp overwhelmed them.

Gray patted them both on their backs as they held onto him, their savior. He couldn't help but feel a little gratified for what he did and they seemed to be grateful for what he did for them.

When the two finally released him, Gray led the two girls to his car down the street and drove them away from the scene before the cops could arrive.

Gray drove back to Will's location with the last of the girls he requested. Will was very grateful to have a much finer and diverse selection for his customers to choose from.

Will wasn't the only one grateful for Gray's help. All the girls were very thankful for Gray getting them away from their former pimps. They kissed him on the cheek and took turns hugging him. Once or twice he was caught off guard by the few that copped a feel of his ass and winked at him.

"Well ain't you a ladykilla?" Will teased when Gray managed to get through the small adoring crowd. The pimp patted Gray on the back as the two walked over to the bootlegger.

"Alright, the last two I picked up make a dozen girls even," Gray said to will as he unlocked the car and opened the door.

"Yup, with these twelve fine honey's, I should be swimming in cash in no time and it's all thanks to you."

They both shook hands before Gray took his seat in his car and started the engine.

"Oh and don't worry, I'm a keep my word and make sure that everyone knows the Saints are the real deal in this city."

"Thanks Will," Gray replied back. He glanced behind the pimp to the girls across the street.

"Bye ladies," he waved the small group who waved back to him.

"Bye Gray," they all said with a giggle in their voice.

"And don't worry about the girls," Will added. "I'll promise to not harm them and make sure they're safe."

"Thank you Will, I know you'll take good care of them."

Will nodded as he backed away from the slow moving car as Gray made his way further into the lane and drove off faster down the road.

It was dusk by the time Gray made it back to the Row. The sun was slowly setting down behind the mountain of Skyscrapers, turning the blue sky into a beautiful collage of orange red and yellow.

He stopped in front of the church and turned off the engine but he didn't get out. Instead he just sat there in the car watching a few crew members of the Saints hanging out having a good time with each other. As he sat there, he couldn't help but feel a shred of doubt in being a part of this.

 _Should I really be doing this?_ Gray worriedly thought to himself. _Can I really handle doing this every day? All this bloodshed, all this killing?_ Was it really good for him to be around? His past history has said , he did really well today, but that was because of the slight weakened state he was in from the lunar phase and even still he had a hard time controlling himself. It could get more difficult to control that part of him on days of the full moon. _I've done this stuff before and managed to control myself, I can do it again._ Remembering those days brought back a sense of relief to him, knowing that with sometime of getting used to being a part of this violent life again hopefully he could control himself out here when he needs to.

Gray revved the engine on and sped off through the neighborhood.

 _This had definitely been one of the most eventful days I've had since coming to this city. I joined a gang and began to help them in the fight to rid the city of the other gangs wreaking havoc on the streets._

The car slipped past the other vehicles as he drove down the main street. He slipped his hand into his pocket and pulled out the piece of paper that he placed their earlier. He unfolded it and read the list of things to buy.

"First stop, the butchers."


	4. The last battle for Saints Row

**Hey guys, I'm back with a new chapter. I'm surprised I managed to finish this one so fast, I can't believe it! Haha**

 **Well before I let you guys continue further, I wanted to let you all know (if you already haven't) that I will be posting updates about my story and any future stories on my profile page since it is a much easier way to inform you guys as opposed to posting a chapter for authors notes, which I don't like to do but I want to keep you all informed.**

 **So should I ever take a really long time to publish a chapter, just check out my profile to see what is up. I will make sure to update whenever something comes up.**

 **Alright, well here is the awesome fourth chapter. I must say I enjoyed writing the ending. Hopefully you will all like it.**

 **Disclaimer: All things Saints Row belong to its creators. The werewolf transformation belongs to the author and creators of the Netflix TV series Hemlock Grove. (Had to use it. It's one of, if not, the best werewolf transformation I have seen on TV. If you haven't seen the show or the transformation, look up Peter Rumancek Werewolf transformation, it is really awesome!)**

* * *

The Monster of Stilwater

Ch.4

The last battle for Saints Row

It has been a hell of a few weeks. During those fourteen days Julius has sent Gray around the Row and beyond to help various people out in return for any future favors Julius will need and spread the word about the Third Street Saints around Stilwater.

When he wasn't jacking cars or killing guys in hotdog suits Julius would send him out to their newly acquired turf and take care of any stragglers still hanging about. Within a few days the district would be completely cleared of any leftovers from the other gangs.

Julius was impressed to say the least, telling Gray that the work he did alone would have taken any of his other Saints twice as long to finish. Granted, he did have a bit of an advantage over the others.

The time on the phone showed that it was half past five when Gray drove his bootlegger into the parking lot of the church. He had just returned from doing a job in Athos Bay Julius had sent him on against the Carnales. Their rival gang is now one drug lab short and twenty fewer soldiers when Gray was finished with them.

After chasing down the one guy that managed to escape the drug lab and killed him, Gray called up Julius and told him the job as done.

"Nice work, now come by the church and pick up me and Troy. It's time to finish this shit." Gray heard the phone click off on the other side of the line. He placed his phone in the cup holder and made his way back to the Row.

Now here he is, sitting in his car waiting for Julius and Troy to walk out of the abandoned church.

Gray picked up his phone again and checked the time. Not the time on his clock, but the timer he had set up earlier before leaving his house. This timer is really important to him today. Two hours was left on the timer.

 _I still have plenty of time,_ he thought to himself. _There is still enough time before I have to literally have to head for the hills._ Mt. Claflin more specifically.

Looking up Gray could see the sky beginning to change its colors as the sun slowly began its descent behind the towering skyscrapers and its light dim as the sky did as well.

His attention was soon turned away from the beautiful yet foreboding dusk scenery when he noticed movement from the corner of his eye. He head two separate pairs of footsteps scraping against the concrete steps of the decrepit building and saw Julius and Troy jogging down the steps and to his car. Julius opened the door to the passenger seat while Troy took his seat in the back.

"I got a tip there's a turf war going on right now over by the docks," Troy informed Gray as he reversed the car out of the parking lot. "If we crash their party we can take out all those sons of bitches out at once." Gray nodded in agreement. It sounds like a good enough plan.

"How many people are going to be out there?" Gray asked.

"When my boys last called, they counted over a hundred and fifty all together, though I'm pretty sure that number has dropped since then.

Gray sped the bootlegger through the busy streets. _God I hate this five o-clock traffic. Its too damn slow and I have places to be._ He quickly glanced at the timer on his phone. He hoped he still has plenty of time after this job.

Luckily he was able to easily evade the cars and pedestrians and even a few traffic lights. Gray had no time to waste sitting in this hellish traffic. If he wanted to get to the docks and finish this job in time he is going to have to break a few driving laws.

Julius didn't seem too fond with the way Gray was driving by the look on his boss' wary face. Gray turned the steering wheel really fast, making too sharp a turn onto the next street. He glanced over to Julius and saw that he was holding the door handle for dear life.

"Slow down playa," Julius said to Gray, the uneasiness clear in his voice. "There will still be plenty of muthafucka's to take down when we get there."

"This is how he drives Julius," Troy exclaimed. "Don't worry though, the kids a better driver than Lin."

"No shit? Now that's impressive!" Julius truly sounded surprised by what Troy had said. "Just don't let her hear you sayin' that. You know how she gets when it comes to her driving."

"Do you really think I'm that stupid?" Troy laughed.

 _This Lin must be a pretty intimidating person if she has the boss and the second in command cautious about what they say in front of her, even if it is just them joking around._

"Is Lin a foot soldier?" Gray asked, he had met all of the Lieutenants but not all of the underlings yet. Julius has kept him so busy that he barely has had time to hang out with the crew.

Julius and Troy looked at each other for a moment then at Gray before both laughing, leaving Gray confused.

"Is Lin a foot soldier?" Julius repeated Gray's question. "No, and don't let her here you say that either unless you want a right hook to the jaw. No, Lin is actually a Lieutenant."

"Oh really? I thought I met all of the lieutenants."

"Nope, she's the only one that you have yet to meet," Troy chimed in. "Julius has her doing some confidential assignment right now that keeps her busy. Don't worry you'll meet her soon."

 _She seems interesting. I'll be looking forward to meeting her._

The car fell silent for a couple of minutes, the only sound was of the music on the radio and the roar of the engine until Troy broke the silence.

"Hey what's with the bag? You going somewhere?" Troy picked up the tattered brown leather backpack Gray had mindlessly thrown into the backseat earlier.

"Yeah I'm uh— I'm going camping," Gray answered back. "Actually I'm going to head out right after we are done at the docks."

"Camping huh? Where do you go camping?" Gray couldn't help but hear the slight suspiciousness in Troy's voice, as if he wasn't convinced of the answer he received.

"Mt. Claflin."

"Oh that's cool. There are some pretty choice spots to pick."

"Mmhm, there sure are," Gray responded back. He glanced at the rearview mirror saw Troy looking a tinge annoyed at the rather short and cryptic answers he was getting out of Gray.

Gray didn't want to tell him more than he needed to know, well in this case, more than what Gray wanted him to know. Hopefully Troy was done asking questions.

"Do you go with any friends? Family?" _Well shit, I guess he isn't. What is up with this guy? Is he some kind of cop? This feels more like an interrogation than just plain curiosity._

"Nope it's just me, sitting around a campfire drinking beer and eating S'mores and playing my guitar." This was half true. Gray does those things too when he is out in the woods, but he left out he real reason he goes out to Mt. Claflin. Gray hoped his answer would satisfy Troy and put an end to the questioning.

"You play guitar?" Gray nodded. At least the question wasn't about his 'camping trip'. "That's awesome, are you any good?"

"Eh, I'm a fair player," he answered modestly.

Ten minutes went by when Gray finally made it to the front of the docks. He didn't have to get out to hear the fighting going on beyond the wall that separated the three men from the battle on the other side. Gunfire and screams and shouts rang through the late afternoon as Gray Julius and Troy got out of the car made their way to the entrance.

Before the three could charge into the fight, Troy stretched out his arm blocking Gray from going any further.

"Hey I ain't gonna lie to you, when we get in there, it's gonna be rough." Gray took a glance at the fighting happening not too far from here he stood. _If he thinks this is rough, he has clearly never been in an arena with monstrous sized opponents hacking off heads and tearing off limbs from their joints._ Gray wasn't too fond of those memories. Luckily for him, this fight wasn't like that. This should be a lot easier, plus he wasn't afraid of getting shot, especially on a day like today.

"Troy you worry too much," Julius exclaimed as he walked over in between them. "The kid will be fine. Alright, let's go."

Julius was the first to run in to the docks, with Troy and Gray following close by.

The moment they entered the docks bullets whizzed past, nearly hitting them as they scattered for cover. Julius and Troy took shelter behind a parked loading truck while Gray found cover behind a large blue storage container not too far away.

Careful not to be seen by the enemy gangs, Gray raised his head above his hiding spot to see the ongoing battle for this spit of territory: Carnales Rollerz Vice Kings and Saints were all spread out everywhere and shooting and killing anyone not wearing their gang colors.

Gray watched as a Carnales thug brutally pistol whipped a VK he had shot in the leg moments before. Again and again he kept smashing the handle of his now blood smeared weapon into the VK's bloodied and broken nose, unsuspecting of another VK sneaking up behind him with a pistol of his own readied and pointed at the red shirt gangbanger. The VK shot the Carnales thug and ran off to find his next target.

Gray glanced over at Julius and Troy who were already fighting off another group of Carnales that found them. Julius had shot down a couple of them and Troy killed three more but the numbers soon replenished and the Saints leader and the second in command were surrounded again.

He was about to run over to help them when five other Saints came to their aide and covered the two men, giving Gray some relief to know they will be fine.

The young man turned to the opposite direction just in time to see one of those punk Rollerz sneaking up behind one of their lady Saints. The young girl was too busy trying to shoot some other Roller in the distance that she wasn't able to defend herself when the guy grabbed her from behind.

The Roller threw her onto the ground and enclosed his body over her as he held her hands down to keep her from hitting him. That didn't stop her struggling to get away.

Another Roller punk came running over to help his buddy with the girl. He took her hands from his friend and pinned them to the ground while the other put his heavy weight on her legs to keep her from kicking at them and fighting back.

Gray didn't think, he didn't have second thoughts, he just ran at them as fast as he could.

He was too fast for the punk Rollerz to see him and before they realized what had happened the two were knocked to the ground on their asses and the lady Saint crawled away to safety away from them.

When one Roller sat back up, daze from the sudden head spinning fall to the ground, his sight became clearer just in time to see a fist coming right at him. The Roller flew onto his back again as blood leaked from his very broken nose.

The other Roller punk got up while Gray was distracted and swung his fist at him.

Gray sensed the attack coming without having to look back. He ducked right as the fist was about to make contact the side of his head. Gray swiftly spun around and grabbed the guy by the neck and lifted him up without any difficulty and chucked him against a storage container and fall to the ground in an unconscious heap.

"Are you alright?" Gray asked when he jogged back to the lady Saint and helped her up from the floor.

"Yeah, I think so." She seemed alright. He noticed a bump on her forehead and she walked with a slight limp. Gray told her to take cover somewhere and keep safe before he left to continue to help out.

"Thank you!" She yelled over the loud noise of the fight. Gray nodded back to her before turning around and ran in the other direction.

Gray cleared out an area being used by a few Carnales thugs and took cover in the newly acquired hiding spot.

It wasn't long before he felt a sudden jolt of electricity run up his spin. His sense of danger was telling him to move, now.

Listening to his instincts, Gray jumped out of the way, just in time too; an RPG rocket screamed its way towards him and exploded right where he was standing moments before, blowing up his hiding spot.

The force of the explosion knocked him off his feet and flipped him forward making him hit the ground hard on his back, causing him to bounce back up. As he was about to hit the ground again he managed to gain control and flipped himself straight and land on his feet this time.

When he was safe from the explosion, Gray covered himself from the falling debris as pieces of metal and asphalt fell back onto the ground. _These people are crazy bringing a fuckin' rocket launcher!_

Gray quickly twisted around when he heard a pair of heavy footsteps running towards him. Julius quickly halted a few feet from him.

"Are you okay?" Julius hollered over the gunfire.

"Yeah I'm fine," Gray responded as he dusted the dirt and bits of debris from his clothes and hair.

Troy came running towards them. Blood was spattered on his clothes and some flecked onto his face.

"Julius, there's too many spread out. We are gonna have to split up so we can cover more ground."

"Shit, you're right." Julius turned back to Gray. "You think you'll be good on your own?"

"I've been doing well so far." Julius quickly gave Gray a hearty pat on the back before running off further down the docks.

Troy patted Gray as well before he left and said, "Hey, don't get shot alright?"

"I'll try but I can't make any promises."

Troy turned away and ran off in the opposite direction Julius had run off. Gray could hear Troy laughing in the distance.

Gray had finished off a group of Carnales when his gun finally ran out of bullets. Since he had no extra ammo, the weapon was useless now. Actually this situation wasn't a bad one. He wanted to blow off some steam the good ole' fashioned way and these lowlife's are the perfect targets.

His first target was a group of VK's. When they saw him, they ran at him guns in hand and aimed at him. He couldn't help but smirk at the situation. He was going to enjoy this.

Gray ran to meet them halfway. The VK's spread out so they could all have a chance to take a shot at him.

The first one Gray met with, he grabbed his arm and snapped it upward with a resounding crack. The pain caused the VK to pull the trigger of his pistol and shot at the sky. Gray, still holding the arm pointed it downward. The VK accidently shot himself in the foot and fell to the ground crying in pain.

Gray stepped over him (the VK was no longer a threat to him) and took his pistol from the ground and checked the clip. It only had two bullets left, so he used them wisely on the two other VK's that came running at him. He shot the closest guy in the left shoulder and the second guy in the right thigh before throwing the empty pistol at the third Vice King, smacking him hard in the face.

The three guys were now crawling and rolling on the floor holding their bloody injuries. The third guy's eye puffed up really fast and bruised to a deep purple and blue color as did his nose where the gun had smacked him.

Gray ran past them and lunged himself at the fourth VK, pushing him onto the ground. He grabbed the man and lifted him up with ease and threw him into the fifth incoming VK running over to join the fight. The two VK's collided into each other with a dull thud before falling onto the damp dock asphalt.

 _God this feels awesome!_ He thought to himself excitedly as his very being filled with elation. His eyes widely scanned the area for more opponents. _It's been so long since I've been in a good fight._

His next target was a Carnales thug some ways away who had just took down a small group of Rollerz.

Gray ran at him, avoiding getting hit by the crossfire he had to go through. He was only a few yards away when one of the Carnales' buddies came out of nowhere and stepped in front of him.

Not missing a single beat, he grabbed the guy by his neck and flipped him onto his back, landing hard onto the asphalt.

The Carnales thug saw Gray had taken down one of his brothers and was coming at him. He aimed his Uzi at Gray and held down the trigger.

Gray avoided the barrage of bullets with swift ease as kept running at the now frightened and desperate gangbanger. _So much for being tough._

The Carnales' Uzi finally ran out of bullets and in a final attempt to stop his oncoming attacker, he threw his weapon at him, which Gray swiped out of his way as if it was some pestering fly and luged at the now fleeing man.

Gray grabbed a handful of the man's shirt and pushed him down onto the ground. He took a knee beside the unconscious thug. He wasn't tired, far from it actually. His body felt restless, invigorated even. He was itching to continue fighting, to hurt more of these lowlifes.

On and on it went like this, Gray ran at his enemies head on and took each of them down. Many tried to shoot him, some managed to get him here and there but he barely felt them and they certainly didn't slow him down, much to the shooters shocked and frightened expressions.

Gray tried to avoid killing, at least in cold blood. He refused to kill anyone in cold blood if he could avoid killing them at all. Even if they are lowlifes like these wannabee's. His attacks weren't so life threatening, so long as they got medical attention as soon as possible.

The air around the docks smelled less of the salty ocean around them and more of the gunpowder and smoke and…blood. The smell wafted through the air, dancing around his nostrils and mouth as if it was taunting him with what he's been denying himself.

Gray shook his head of the feeling that was clouding his judgement and tried to concentrate on the current mission but it was hard wen everywhere he looked he was surrounded by bloodied bodies.

He turned to the unconscious body of the Carnales thug he had just taken down. The blood that poured from his smashed nose and trailed out of his mouth smelled so fresh so…delicious Gray couldn't help himself but crawl towards the unconscious man.

He knew he shouldn't do this. A part of him was screaming at him to stop, to not give in to temptation while the other half kept pushing him closer, goading him to feed from helpless man. That half of him was indeed feeling stronger today.

" _ **The blood is right there, ripe for the taking."**_ _Shit not him again. Not now._

Gray glanced to the side and saw him. Daemon relaxing on the ground on the other side of the body, no longer just a voice in his head but a body. Though he might look it, he wasn't a solid figure, more like incorporeal, only to be seen by Gray himself. Though he is intangible, Daemon was still as dangerous.

It was like looking at a reflection, if Gray's aqua green eyes had turned to that wild animal like yellow and he was actually smiling at the situation he was in.

"Shut up Daemon," Gray growled and shook his head, hoping to be rid of this malicious entity. "Go back to that dark hole that is your home and leave me alone!"

" _ **Oh, you mean your heart,"**_ Daemon quickly quipped. _**"You know I can't do that. Especially when you are so weak-willed like you are right now."**_

Daemon wasn't. Gray took a good look at himself, on the floor preying on an incapacitated human like some savage beast.

"I am no savage beast, not anymore!" Gray declared. "I am better than this. Better than you!"

He looked back across the guy he was hovering over and saw that Daemon wasn't there anymore. _Good, maybe he'll leave me alone this time._

It was hard but Gray managed to back away from the unconscious guy on the floor and walked away.

Gray had to remind himself to keep calm when he continued to fight. It might not have been such a good idea to keep on fighting but this is a part of his job now.

He had to admit, since he denied himself the blood, his attacks were becoming more…well…violent towards his attackers. At one point he almost used his claws on some VK who tried to sneak up on him. Gray managed to control himself and retract his claws before he could really harm the guy and instead punched him in the face. By the damage he did to the guys face, he punched him a little too hard when he noticed the VK's face resembled a pug's, before discarding him onto the floor.

Gray took in slow deep breaths hoping that he could calm himself more. Unfortunately for him, he didn't notice someone coming behind him.

That sudden attack caught him off guard and in that split second, Gray lost it.

The control he had was gone and all that was left was his primal instincts to go on. That was unfortunate for the poor bastard that tried to attack Gray from behind.

Gray grabbed his attacker; a Rollerz punk no older than eighteen by the look of his frightened face. He held onto the boy's collar of his blue and white muscle shirt and rammed him into the slate colored brick wall.

Gray let out a low growl as he brought his head closer to kid's and sniffed the air around his neck, inhaling his scent. He could feel the Rollerz kid tense and shake at the close proximity Gray was at him.

He needed to gain control again or he is going to tear this kid to shreds.

Slowly but surely Gray could feel himself calm and begin to come to his senses again as he looked back at the kid he held tightly in his dangerous grasp. _This kid doesn't look dangerous. This is probably his first time being in a gang war and his leader wanted to bleed him early._

The urge to kill began to wane and his normal composure slowly returned to him. Once he felt like himself, Gray put the kid back down on his feet. He figure he could let the kid go. He frightened him enough that he was sure the kid would run off scared and never look back.

At least, that's what he thought until he felt a sharp sudden pain in his abdomen.

Gray looked down and saw a good sized knife sticking out of his stomach. He glanced back up to see the malicious smirk etched on the punk kids face.

His smirk soon faded fast when he saw Gray pull the knife out without so much as a whimper of pain escaping his lips.

Fear spread across the paling kids face as Gray cleaned the knife of his blood with his dirtied shirt.

The kid's nerves finally began to work with his brain and he ran in a dead sprint running as far away from Gray as he could go.

" _ **Well, that was very rude of him,"**_ Daemon sighed lazily standing beside his other half with his arms crossed over his chest. _**"Are you just going to let him get away with that?"**_

Gray didn't respond back. He would have let the kid go unharmed. Well, maybe not completely unharmed. Maybe break his hand or maybe a leg, something that could easily be repaired after sometime to teach him a lesson. But now, since that kid pulled such a dirty not to mention cowardly trick, Gray wasn't going to let him escape.

Gray tossed the knife in the air and caught the blade between his thumb and index finger and aimed the weapon at his intended target still trying to run away.

Gray rolled his shoulder back and flexed his right arm back and threw the knife back to its owner.

The aim was perfect, and powerful. The force of the throw was so powerful that when the blade plunged into the Rollerz back, it sent him flying forward off his feet and flung him in the air. The boy fell to the floor and skidded his entire front onto the gravelly asphalt.

Gray walked over to the body and looked down at the corpse bleeding out on the ground. The boy's face was horribly disfigured from scraping on the rough ground. He looked more like he was his hit by a car than a blade to the back.

When he looked at this boy, the disdain he had felt earlier suddenly changed. He felt anxious, maybe even a little guilt for taking his life. _No, that boy had the chance to leave but instead he chose to pull a boneheaded move that ended up costing his life._

" _ **You're quite right, he deserved to die for what he did."**_ Gray rolled his eyes. He didn't need to know what was right and wrong from him.

Daemon crouched down beside the body and pilled the knife from the boy's back. _**"Now that was an excellent throw,"**_ He praised as he examined Gray's work. _**"You were always good at hitting your target."**_

He looked back up at Gray still standing over the corpse. _**"Come closer, to see your work,"**_ he insisted, his dark smile ever present on his face.

Gray gulped down on the saliva building up in his mouth as he stared at the corpse. The dead, bleeding fresh corpse, still warm as if he was still alive.

All he could hear was the fast pounding of his heartbeat that reverberated in his ears and the cold evil voice that he dreaded hearing every time.

Gray knelt down beside the corpse, not taking his eyes off the body, the blood that flowed from the slit the sharp blade had made.

" _ **Mmm, look at all that blood,"**_ Daemon smiled. He slid a finger through the blood pooling on the boy's back and rubbed it with his thumb. _**"You must have stabbed him right through to the heart."**_

He could see Gray was fighting him. The sweat beading down his forehead and his fingers fidgeted against his tense body.

It was only a matter of time.

" _ **Come on, no one's watching,"**_ He coaxed. _**"He's dead already, you're not going to kill him again if you drink his blood."**_

Gray leaned in closer, he was inches from the warm thick red liquid pooling on the floor, jus wasting away. It was beyond tempting for him to give up now. That will power he had was waning more and more.

Daemon watched, his menacing yellow eyes wide in excitement as his self-righteous other half was finally giving in to his needs.

Gray was so close now, he could see every thread of the blood stained T-shirt.

"Whoa!" Suddenly stopped when he heard that familiar voice. He shot back up and turned around to see Troy and Julius standing some feet behind him, a look of shock at what they saw clear on their faces.

Gray's eyes instantly widened. _Oh shit! Did they see me? Did they see what I was about to do? Did they hear everything?_

Thoughts and questions ran through his mind at a hundred miles a second.

 _How would I explain this to them?_

 _Should I leave the city now and have Cael send my things when I settle down somewhere else?_

Julius slowly walked forward a few paces.

"What I just saw…"

"Julius, I'm sorry. I didn't mean for you to see that, I just couldn't help myself—"

Troy walked over beside Julius, staring at Gray's tattered and bloodied clothes. His eyes lowered to Gray's hands where the bloody knife he used was now being held. Troy then looked behind Gray to the kid's body and walked over to see Gray's work.

Julius stared at his latest recruit, confused as he listened to his rant. Finally he held up a hand to stop his rambling.

"Hold on, what I just saw… was amazing. You got that Roller perfectly."

It was Gray's turn to look confused.

 _Julius didn't see what I was about to do after all?_ Relief flooded and washed away the hundreds of thoughts that raced through his mind.

"Yeah I guess I did."

Gray turned his attention to the rest of the docks, expecting to see another attack from any more lowlife's but no one came running at them or shot at them. In fact, the only people still standing were running off in defeat. Some of them were trying to help their injured friends get away while others just ran off leaving their 'brothers behind' to die or get caught by the police.

The fight was over. The Saints have won the battle, claiming all of Saints Row.

All the Saints still standing cheered and applauded each other at their victory. All of them, except for Troy, who was still kneeling beside the young Rollerz dead body.

With a heavy sigh, Troy stood back up and turned to Gray with a sullen expression.

"Did you really have to kill him?" Gray was caught off guard by the sudden outburst. "He was just a kid, you could have let him go."

"I did let him go," Gray defensively told the Saints second in command. "I did, but then he decided to use this—" Gray showed Troy the knife still in his hands. "—and stuck me with it here." Gray raised his stained shirt and pointed to the deep incision it made.

Troy opened his mouth and closed it as if he was about to say something but decided not to, as if he would have revealed something if he spoke any further.

Gray thought it was odd to see Troy so upset about the death of some gangbanger, especially since he is from another gang they are trying to disband.

"Troy, the boy made his decision and he chose wrong. That's unfortunate but it's not the playa's fault for defending himself." Julius came to Gray's defense, but that didn't make him feel any better for what he did.

Looking down at the Roller, Gray was beginning to feel guilty. The kid was too young to be a part of this life and he was too young to be killed.

"Look Troy, I do feel sorry for killing him. I—I just lost it for a second." Gray wanted to patch things up with Troy. The last thing he wanted was for the second in command to think he was some unremorseful killer.

The stern look Troy had softened as he noticed the sincerity in Gray's voice and sorrowful expression. He patted Gray on the shoulder, his manly way to show affection.

"Yeah, I believe ya kid. You don't seem the type to kill for fun."

 _If only he knew what I used to be like._

Gray took notice of the state his boss and second in command were in and saw they looked pretty worn out. They both have their fair share of scrapes and bruises spotted on their exposed skin. Their torn clothes dirtied with blood splattered and soiled with sweat and dirt.

"You guys look like hell," he joked at the two.

"Hey you don't look any better yourself playa," Julius chuckled and pointed at Gray, noticing the holes in his ruined and stained pale grey T-shirt where the bullets pierced through.

Gray didn't notice the wounds until now.

"Are you okay?"

"Oh yeah, I can barely feel them."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, it must be the adrenaline rush. I'll head to the hospital before I drive out to Mt. Claflin."

"You're still gonna go camping after getting all shot up like a target practice poster?" Troy laughed. "Man, you are one tough fucker.

The moment of relaxation from the fighting came to an abrupt end when the distant sound of police sirens rang through the streets, getting louder by the second.

"Shit, we need to get out of here!" Troy shouted as a group of cop cars began pulling into the entrance of the docks.

The three of them snuck their way back to the entrance, only drawing attention when they got into Gray's car and drove off.

A couple of cops tried to chase them through the streets but Gray managed to lose them in the sea of traffic halfway back to the Row.

"I'm really starting to appreciate your driving now," Julius smiled, turning back to see the cop cars getting smaller and smaller in the distance as they drove further away.

"Alright, now that we lost the cops, drop me and Julius off at the church." Gray nodded at his latest order and made a turn onto the bridge that took them straight to Mission Beach.

Once Gray stopped the car in the parking lot, Julius and Troy stepped out of the car and closed the doors. Before he could leave, Julius leaned in on the passenger side and crossed his arms where the window would have been if it had been rolled up.

"Well, we did it playa. The Row is ours again. Don't think I am done with you yet, though. I'm gonna hold a meeting tomorrow morning so make sure you're here in time, a'ight?"

"Will do, see you guys tomorrow." Julius and Troy waved Gray off as he slowly drove the car towards the parking exit.

"Hey, make sure you get those injuries looked at!" he heard Troy yell. Gray waved at him to show he heard him before driving off down the street.

On his way downtown, Gray drove past the hospital. Instead of going in like he said he would he kept on driving. He only told Troy and Julius he was going to go to the hospital so they wouldn't get suspicious and ask any questions.

He didn't need to go to the hospital. Lifting his now ruined shirt, he saw the now nearly healed stab wound. On the left side of his torso, Gray felt a dull pain throbbing. Looking down, he saw one of the small round bullets protruding from the hole it burrowed into his body. The dull throb came from the bullet being pushed out of his body by his own natural healing abilities.

When it finally came out, Gray caught it in his waiting hand and tossed it out the open window. The bullet hole closed and left only a deep red bruise in its place just as felt another dull throb of another bullet pushing out of his chest.

The traffic wasn't bad through the city, much to Gray's relief. He hated waiting in traffic, and on certain days like today he had little patience to wait for traffic to move.

He turned off the main road just outside the city and drove onto a dirt road that led him through the forest to his hidden campsite.

He made it with just enough time to get himself ready as the last rays of the sun began to dim and fade into the darkening sky.

Gray parked his car at the end of the dirt road that ended at the edge of the clearing on the side of the large hill. He leaned into the backseat and grabbed his brown leather backpack before getting out of the car.

The clearing was a nice looking campsite. On one side was the edge of the forest thickly lined with a combination of tall oak and pine trees with shrubbery closer to the ground. On the opposite end was the Cliffside that overlooked the brightening city below.

A decent sized RV was parked near the clearings entrance. That RV was his home while he traveled on the road.

In the center was an area he made for his campfires whenever he decided to stay overnight with a fold out chair placed a few feet away.

All in all it was a good spot. Quiet, with the exception of the sounds of nature. It was secluded and hidden away from any humans, he made sure of it. The area didn't have the smell of humans when he first found this spot and hasn't since.

Many time's Gray came here, he would always call this spot 'very cozy'. He liked being in the city, but he loved being in the solitude of the forest.

He crossed the grounds toward the camper and pulled out his keychain from his pocket and unlocked the door to toss the bag inside.

As he walked towards the center Gray pulled out his phone and turned on the screen. Ten minutes to go. Thinking it was time to get ready, Gray began to undress himself.

He took his ruined shirt off first and tossed it on the chair along with his phone and the necklace he wore. The stab wound on his relaxed abs was nothing more than a dark red line on his well-toned torso and rest of his bullet holes were nothing more than round bruises.

Gray slipped off his black and white converse as he unbuckled the brown leather belt and undid his jeans. He tossed the clothing onto the chair including his grey and black plaid boxers.

Now naked as the day he was born, Gray stood under the shine of the moonlight, revealing his natural lightly tanned skin on his tall lean and toned body. His disheveled mane of brown hair shined in the bright night light.

It was time.

Gray took a deep breath and exhaled. He could feel it, the power. It was like a warm feeling rolling up and down his naked body, giving him goosebumps everywhere.

He took another deep breath and this time when he exhaled it happened fast: Gray's body suddenly arched back and quickly jerked forward as the incredibly intense pain of his bones snapped and his muscles spasm under his now sweating skin.

He stumbled a bit but managed to keep himself on his trembling legs. The pain had subsided and Gray gained his bearings when his body relaxed and the bones stopped breaking and moving around.

Gray's body tensed as he readied himself. His hands clenched in tight fists. It wasn't over, that wasn't even the worst of it.

SNAP. CRACK. The clearing echoed with painful sounds of more of his bones broke like twigs and his arms and legs bent and contorted the wrong way as they began to form the figure of a different creature.

His heart was threatening to burst out of his chest, it was beating so fast and his breathing came out more rapidly through his flared nostrils. He couldn't even open his mouth the pain as too excruciating.

The sudden jerk of his body sent Gray falling on his hands and knees. Spit and blood flew and dribbled from between his clenched teeth of his snarling mouth.

AARGH! GAAH! He screamed as he covered closed eyes with his trembling hands. Blood poured from his sockets and trailed down his hands and arms and dripped onto the grassy floor.

Through the agonizing pain, Gray widened the gaps between his fingers, exposing his eyeballs being pushed out of their sockets, squelching as they passed through his fingers and fell onto the ground.

Taking place of his beautiful aqua green eyes were a pair of bright yellow animal like eyes staring widely and wildly back at the world around him.

The transformation still wasn't over.

Looking down at his hands, Gray could see his nails falling out of his bleeding nail beds to make room for the claws growing longer and sharper. His new claws scratched and sunk deep into the earth. With these new claws of his, there was one thing left he had to do.

Sitting as upright as he can, Gray straightened his back as he moved raised his sharp claws, one placed on each side of his heaving chest and plunged the knife like claws into his skin. With a loud deep animalistic roar he tore the flesh away from his body.

He tossed the torn pieces of flesh onto the grass. Under his skin there wasn't any muscle or meat of any kind but fur, thick dark brown fur.

He continued to tear his skin away to let the monster out to the world. He moved his claws to his face and scratched the skin away.

Gray's white teeth fell out of his bleeding gums to make room for the sharp jagged canine teeth that quickly grew in their place.

Gray began to dry heave as his mouth as his mouth opened wider and wider. The edges of his stretched lips tore as his mouth grew wider to make room for the canine like muzzle pushing its way through.

Most of the flesh fell away from his body as Gray's body became a larger and bulkier figure than the one he was when he stood their moments before.

The pain began to wane. Gray the man was gone and Gray the werewolf stood on all four of his giant paws standing at almost six feet.

The animal shook his furry body, tossing off the remaining bits of flesh and blood onto the ground before trotting to the cliffs edge and gazed out to the beautiful golden glow of the brightly lit city.

His thick brown fur waved as a heavy gust of cool wind breezed through the campsite. Gray's new glowing yellow eyes took one last look of Stilwater and turned to the opposite direction and scanned beyond the tree line, sniffing the air hoping to catch a delicious scent.

His furry triangular ears quickly perked upward as a sudden sound of twigs snapping echoed in the distance.

The primal predatory instincts took over, the werewolf ran into the darkness of the forest searching for the unfortunate animal that would become his prey.

The moonlight illuminated in between the dancing branches of the towering trees, giving enough light to see. Not that Gray needed. With his new eyes he could see better than anyone could on a bright sunny day through this darkness.

The massive wolf ran deep into the forest, following the scent of his prey and began his night of freedom.


	5. The day after

**Hey guys! Well, it looks like I have finally caught up with my older version of this story! YAY! Fortunately, I was working on what would have been the fifth chapter in the original M.O.S story before I started on this lovely rewrite so it will won't take me long to finish and post it.**

 **Alright, well as usual I hope you enjoy this chapter and please leave a review and let me know what you think.**

 **Disclaimer- I only own my OC's and anything else I made, nothing else. I solemnly swear.**

* * *

The Monster of Stilwater

CH.5

The day after

The pale light of dawn slowly crept up the dark sky as morning began to rise over the city's horizon. The forest that surrounds Mt. Claflin began to stir awake as its inhabitants started their morning. Amongst the creatures, a large brown wolf trudged through the brush as he made his way back to his clearing through the haze of the early morning fog.

By the time he made it back to the campsite, the sky was bright with the early rays of the morning sun.

The wolf stumbled out of the forests edge and made his way across the campsite and halted near the fire pit in the center of the clearing.

At first, he just stood there, sniffing the cool morning air. For a moment, nothing happened. Then the quiet solitary clearing was disturbed by the loud noise of growls that escaped the wolf's chest. The low deep growls changed to whimpers as Gray kneeled in agony as the pain of the transformation coursed through his body, making the large animal curl and fall to the ground.

The wolf's body convulsed as the pain worsened. His bones broke and rearranged themselves under his thick blanket of brown fur as he slowly and excruciatingly returned to his human features bits at a time.

The sharp claws popped out of his bleeding fingers as his new human nails grew in to take their place and his hands and feet grew out of the large paws and tore through the wolf's flesh.

Gray shook his head as it throbbed in pain at what was starting to happen: He opened his mouth and spat out blood mixed with saliva along with his sharp canine like teeth onto the grass. His mouth opened wider and something else started making its way out of the mouth. At first it was just wet and slimey hair and in moments more of Gray's head came into view under the shine of the sunlight.

The wolf's mouth couldn't widen any more than it already was and Gray became stuck until his exposed hands grabbed either side of the wolf's muzzle and started pulling each part further and further apart.

When it couldn't take the stress of being pulled and stretched anymore, the muzzle snapped and broke off the rest of the large wolf head and fell to a dull thud onto the ground along with the top half of the now human form of Gray exposed to the cold morning air.

The young man tore at the rest of the wolf skin as if he was tearing a T-shirt in half and slid out of the steaming heap of flesh and fur that crumpled onto the floor.

Panting and shaking, Gray was back to his human form again. His body covered in blood sweat and slime from his former body. He didn't need to worry about it being left here. Nature itself will take care to dispose of it for him.

KAW KAW KAW

Gray looked up from the ground to where his old flesh lied and watched as a group of crows fly down from the trees and landing beside the still warm carcass. _Looks like nature's already taking care of it,_ he thought as he watched the birds peck and eat the flesh.

Out of breath and every inch of his body sore, Gray stumbled to get back on his feet from the dew covered grass and wiped the dirt and gathered leaves and grass from his bare body.

Once the effects of the transformation wore off and his body felt calmer, he made his way to the fold out chair by the fire pit and collected his clothing and items he left out last night and walked to the camper.

The inside of the RV had a cozy feel to it. Behind the driver's seat was a brown two seater couch pushed against the wall and a small television was placed across from the furniture on top of the counter. Further in is a small kitchen area with a few cabinets that surrounded the sink and stove and a mini fridge built into one of the bottom cabinets. Across from the kitchen area is a built in booth that can seat four people. Beside the kitchen is the small bathroom big enough to fit a shower and a toilet inside. A the back of the camper is his bedroom with a dark brown wooden dresser and a large queen sized bed that takes up most of the space in the room.

Gray walked inside the bathroom and turned on the shower. While he waited for the water to warm, Gray gathered what he would need from his backpack and set them out on the table: a clean set of clothes for him to wear and a small black bag carrying his toothbrush toothpaste and shaving kit.

In one of the cabinets, he kept his towels neatly folded inside. Gray opened the cabinet and took out a green towel before entering the now steaming shower.

The hot water rinsed off most of the dirt and blood, while the rest had to be cleaned off when he scrubbed his body over with the body soap.

As he stood there in relaxed bliss under the warm blanket of water pouring over him, Gray recounted last night's adventure.

He remembered running through the dark woods as fast as he could, chasing the bats and that flew low through the forest and any other small creatures for fun. He remembered running to the top of Mt. Claflin and looking down at the illuminated city below. However what he remembered the most was the hunt. That stag he found by the creek did not give up without a fight, much to Gray's delight. Prey that fought back was his favorite kind. He considered them more rewarding to catch.

The stag had heard Gray step on a twig, revealing his presence. The majestic creature made a dash for it further into the woods. Gray ran at full speed at the galloping animal. When he got close enough, the wolf lunged and tackled it down to the ground but the stag wouldn't have it. With all its might, the stag kicked him hard in the chest with one of his powerful hooves before making a quick escape. Ignoring the pain, Gray got up and continued to chase the stag down.

It was hurt, he could tell by the way it was galloping that one of its legs was hurt. However the creature still kept running away as fast as it could.

It didn't take long for the wolf to catch up to the injured stag. He lunged at his prey and catching it again. Not wanting it to suffer anymore, he broke the stags neck with his powerful jaw, killing it instantly before feasting on the dead animal. When he was done, all that remained of his meal was bones and scraps of meat. Satisfied, the wolf trudged off and continued his run.

Gray turned the water off and grabbed the green towel from the toilet seat lid. He dried his hair first and moved down his now clean body. When he finished drying himself, Gray wrapped the damp towel loosely around his waist and walked out towards the table with everything set out for him.

When he had finished shaving the dark brown stubble of course hair from his jaw and cheeks, Gray began to feel his lack of sleep overwhelm him. His eye lids feeling heavy and his eye stinging as he tried to keep them open. Gray picked up his phone as a stifled yawn came out of his mouth. He lit up the screen to check the time. It wasn't even seven yet.

"Well, Julius isn't expecting me for a few more hours," he muttered to himself. "That gives me time to rest for a bit and catch up on some sleep." Agreeing with the decision to get some rest, he slipped on a pair of black jeans he laid out, leaving off his shoes and shirt. He walked over to the end of the camper where his bedroom was and plopped down on the soft inviting bed. As soon as his head hit the plush white pillows, he fell fast asleep. Unfortunately, it wouldn't be a dreamless one.

 _Her scent filled the air, surrounding me, filling my very being with her own aroma mixed with the special mead the tavern she worked at was well known for brewing and serving._

 _I've watched her serve the patrons earlier tonight and last night and the night before, as part of my ritual. I don't know what had drawn me to her. What had made me target her above all the other woman I've come across? Maybe it was the sweetness of her personality or the purity of her heart I felt every time I visited this establishment. Whatever it was, I didn't care. She is only a human, my source of food and in moments, I will get my fill thanks to her unwilling contribution._

 _I had followed her from the tavern as she made her way to her small home in the city's slum district. She knew she was being followed, I wasn't trying to hide my presence. If I didn't want her to know I was there, she wouldn't know until it was too late but that wouldn't be any fun. I wanted her to know. I wanted her to be frightened and she certainly was. Her heart was racing in her chest and her breathing became more frantic as she began to walk faster down the dark cold street away from me. She could run all she wants I will catch her. I always catch my prey no matter how hard they try to escape._

 _I followed the woman into an alleyway a block from her home in this shit smelling neighborhood. The air around us was quiet, with the exception of the clicking of our footsteps on the cobblestone streets._

 _She tried to get away from me, a futile attempt. The alleyway she ran into only had one way out and I stood in that way._

 _I glanced both ways to make sure no one was around to see me and what I was about to do. The street was empty and the only noise I could hear is a horse drawn carriage creaking as it is being pulled down the cobblestone road a few blocks away._

 _I know she can't see my face. The brim of the black silk top hat I wore cast a shadow over most of my face while the rest was covered by the collar of my black coat. She can't see what the darkness is hiding but I know she can see my eyes. My glowing yellow eyes staring back at her, watching her try to find a way out of the alley. It was amusing to watch her frantically try to climb over the brick wall at the end of the alley only to slip and fall back onto the ground._

 _I took my time walking towards her. She wasn't going anywhere. The woman stopped her attempts to escape and finally turned to me, something that she has been avoiding doing since she noticed I was following her. I can see the scared panicked look on her tear streaked face as I made my way down the narrow alley. I whistled a jolly tune as I closed the gap between the two of us and grazed my elongated claws against the brick wall. She kept backing away from me until her back hit the wall. I stopped advancing any further when I stood in front of her, towering over her scared quaking body._

" _Please," she pleaded to him. Her scared voice had the strong accent of the cockney British that is commonly heard in the working class parts of London. "Let me go."_

 _I smiled. I love it when they begged. Their pitiful attempts to reason or persuade me to let them go always amused me. I closed the gap between us when I outstretched my arms to the wall, placing them on either side of her, blocking any way of her escaping from me._

 _I lowered my head to her neck, my nose skimming her skin as I inhaled her delicious scent. I could feel her trembling figure tense at the close contact of our bodies._

 _Removing my hat, I tossed it to the floor, letting the moonlight shine down on me, allowing her to see who it was hunting her._

 _Her wet frightened eyes widened at the revelation before her._

" _I know who you are sir," she gasped. "I've served you many times. You seemed like such a gentleman, a kind man. Why are you doing this?"_

" _Why am I doing this, you ask?" he repeated softly as he played with a lock of her curly blonde hair with his fingers. "I am doing this because…it is in my nature."_

 _The woman let out a whimper and began to sob at my reply. I guess she didn't like my answer. Oh well._

 _I lowered my head again, not like I did moments earlier. No, I am done playing. It is time to finish this._

 _I close my eyes as I feel the features on my face change. This was a different kind of change, not like the one that happens on the full moon. I still keep my human form, but my face becomes something else. I guess you can say it is a bit of a sneak peek of the monster that is hiding underneath my skin._

 _A low menacing growl escaped my chest, making her cringe in fright. I couldn't help but smile at her reaction._

 _I looked back up with the face that only the unfortunate souls have seen. Her eyes widened at the inhuman features on my transformed face staring back at her. My glowing yellow eyes watched her like a wild beast does its prey, with this urge not for hunger. I had already fed earlier, but for something else to be sated._

 _I held a hand to her mouth when she began get louder with her cries. I didn't want her to draw attention to us._

" _Calm down," I said to her as I gently stroked her cheek. My sharp claws softly caressing her soft paling skin._

" _I'm going to remove my hand. When I do, I do not want you to scream. Is that clear?"_

 _She quickly nodded and I slowly removed my hand from her lips and instead moved them down to her arms to make sure she didn't try to make a run for it. Not that she would make it very far._

" _You're one of those creatures, aren't you? A vampire?"_

 _I suddenly stopped my 'antics'. I was honestly stunned that she would know of such creatures. How did she know of such things?_

" _I'm a barmaid," the woman responded. She must have noticed the confused and surprised look on my face. "I have met and seen many strange people in the tavern."_

" _Clever girl." I smiled at her. Her eyes couldn't be taken away from my sharp fangs exposed as I smiled. "However, I am not exactly like a vampire. I am something else as well. I am something more. I am something much, much worse."_

 _I tightened my grip on her slender arms as I lowered my head back down to her neck. I can see her veins pulsing through her paling skin. I can hear the blood rushing through her body as her heart pounded a fast rhythmic beat in her heaving chest._

" _You know, I actually ate earlier." Standing straight again, I looked to the barmaid in front of me, trapped by my arms and towering body. She looked relieved as I took a step back from her. "I really shouldn't be such a glutton."_

" _Then you will let me go?" she asked, her eyes wide with hope of being set free. "Please, let me go, I have children! They will be orphaned!"_

" _Oh, you needn't worry about your children," I told her as gently and sweetly as I caressed her tear streaked cheeks. "For they are waiting for you…in heaven."_

" _NOOO!" the woman wailed into the night. Her body crumpled to the floor as she continued to sob hysterically._

" _YOU MONSTER! HOW COULD YOU!" she kept bellowing at me through her sobs. I just stood there listening to the woman's sorrowful cries of despair with enjoyment. Her cries were like music to my ears and I just wanted to keep hearing more._

" _This is what I am…a monster," I muttered with a smile curling my lips._

 _I turn my gaze down to the woman and grabbed her with too much force. My mouth opened wide and without thinking, without hesitating I bit into her flesh between the neck and shoulder. Her blood spurted and poured out like a tub overflowing with water, some of it spattered on his face and dripped from the tip of his nose and the bottom of his chin._

 _Panicking, the woman cried and screamed in pain as she desperately fought to get out of my powerful grip, but her self-protective behavior only spurred me on to tear into her flesh._

 _I felt her body slowly stop fighting back and her body gradually slackened under my grasp. I knew she wasn't dead, yet. Her heart was still thumping but it was dawdling as it began to cease and her breathing became more haggard as it came out of her a jarring mouth._

 _I lifted my head. All the lower half of my face glazed in her warm blood that filed me with such elation. My tongue fervently licked around my lips and I wiped my hands in the blood and sucked the blood from my fingers._

 _Through my ecstasy, I could hear, very faintly, her murmuring something incoherent. Leaning in closer, I listened to her ramblings and I realized what she was saying. She was praying. Oh she is a holy one, isn't she? Nothing's better than having fun with a god fearing victim._

" _Pray all you want, God will not help you here," I laughed._

 _Before I could continue with her, something caught my attention in the distance. I looked out to the dark unlit part of the alley and noticed a lone figure stepping out of the shadows._

 _What I saw immediately took my attention away from the dying woman in my arms. I saw myself. Yet, it wasn't exactly me. I realized it was a more modern me, looking back at me with his cold menacing blazing yellow animalistic eyes and a dark smile spreading across his face._

 _Daemon walked over towards me and crouched down to where I was holding onto the woman between us. Giving her a quick once over look, he turned to me._

" _This is what we are!" Daemon exclaimed, his voice sounding more threatening with each word. "You can't deny what we are. What YOU are. What you do. What you've done."_

 _Looking down at the woman slowly dying on the cold ground, I no longer felt any pleasure and elation at what I did. All I felt now was guilt and horror at what I had done to this woman. This poor innocent woman and her children…oh God, her children!_

" _NO! NO!" I began to panic and frantically tried to stop the blood flowing with my hands but to no avail._

 _Daemon aggressively grabbed her from the floor and held her up in front of me._

" _YOU ARE A MONSTER SO STOP TRYING TO BE ANYTHING LESS!"_

 _In a swift and fluid motion, I watched him snap her neck and toss her lifeless body back onto the cold hard ground._

" _NO!"_

Gray's eyes snapped open, the primal fury of his nightmare pulling his body awake like so many past nights. For a moment he just lied in his bed, still and quiet while he waited for his body to settle and his heart to calm down in his chest.

He sat himself up on the edge of the bed, his arms resting on his lap. He rubbed his hands on his face as his trembling body slowly began to relax again.

He hated those nightmares. Gray considered them the worst punishment for him to endure than any physical torture he had been through in the past. It wasn't enough that he feels beyond guilty for what he's done but having to constantly relive them in his only moments of peace was always worse. As much as Gray hates it though, he feels that it is a fitting punishment to never forget what he's done. That nightmare, no that memory, is just one of the many that haunt him and certainly not the worst that he's done to his unfortunate victims.

Gray's phone went off, taking him out of his thoughts. He grabbed the device from the other side of the bed and pressed the answer button.

"Hey Troy," Gray throatily croaked into the phone before clearing his throat.

"Hey kid, is everything okay?" Troy asked with concern.

"Yeah I'm fine. I just uh… just woke up."

"Oh, okay. Well, I was just calling to check on how you're doing. How are those injuries of yours?"

Gray looked down to his now nearly nonexistent wounds. "They're fine. It feels like they aren't even there."

"Well that's good. I'm glad you're feeling better. Anyway I also called to let you know that the meeting is gonna start in an hour and Julius wants you to be there to officially welcome you."

 _Officially welcome me? I thought that was what the canonization was for._

"Yeah okay, I'll head out right now."

"Alright kid, see ya at the church."

"Yeah see you in a bit." Gray pressed the end call button and stood up from his bed and walked out of the small bedroom and treaded over to the table and slipped on his black and white flannel button up. He rolled the sleeves up just above his elbows and buttoned his shirt, leaving the top three buttons undone.

As he slipped on his shoes, Gray picked up his necklace and adjusted it around his neck he kissed the ring, as he usually did after putting it on, before letting it hang lazily in front of his chest.

When he was done getting ready, Gray stepped out of the camper with his brown leather backpack hoisted onto one shoulder and a thermos of his 'special' coffee in hand as he walked to his parked car and drove it back into the city.

Gray stopped the engine of his bootlegger and took the keys out of the ignition before he stepped out of the vehicle and made his way down the concrete pathway leading to the church's front doors.

As soon as he opened the large wooden doors, Gray was greeted with a roar of applause that surprised him. The stunned young man was pulled further through the doorway by a few of his fellow Saints.

The members he walked past greeted him with pats on his back and shoulders as he passed by and congratulated him.

He was confused. _What are they congratulating me for?_

Gray found Troy talking with Dex and Johnny near the stage on the other side of the large room. Weaving through the crowd he made his way towards the three men.

"There's the man of the hour!" Dex hollered with a wide smile. The lieutenant walked over to meet Gray and high fived him.

"What's going on?"

"Like you don't know."

Gray was really confused now. "I don't actually."

"Dude, everyone here knows about the fight at the docks and how you pretty much won the battle for us." Johnny praised him. "The way they said how you wailed on those other bangers, I'm glad you're on our side."

The four men laughed at the statement.

"You're not the only one who thinks that," Troy said to Johnny. "Roxanne thinks so too."

"Who's Roxanne?"

Troy Dex and Johnny all smiled at Gray.

"Roxanne's the girl you saved yesterday." Troy turned around to a small group of fellow Saints standing near one of the ends of the church. Gray Dex and Johnny followed Troy's gaze and sure enough Gray recognized the woman from yesterday standing in the middle of the crowd talking animatedly with the friends around her.

"She's been telling everyone how you saved her from those asshole Rollerz."

It seemed as if Roxanne knew they were talking about her because sure enough she turned to them. Her gaze met Gray's and she gave him a smile to which he returned kindly and waved hi to her. Blushing, she turned away back to her friends.

"Well well well, if I didn't know any better I'd say she has a crush on you," Dex teased, he looked the girl up and down, checking her out. "You should go out with her. She's pretty and it seems like she has a thing for you now."

Before Gray could respond back, Julius had entered the large room from one of the side entryways and took his place at the top of the altar to look down at his crew.

"Listen up people, I got some serious shit to discuss," the leader hollered, his deep voice echoed through the church and catching everyone's attention.

"Yeah, we cleaned out the Row. You think for a second that's gonna stop 'em? Unless we wipe all these muthafucka's out, they're gonna keep comin' and they ain't gonna be happy. It ain't gonna be settled until the Carnales the Rollerz and the Vice Kings ain't nothin' but a memory."

"Dex," the Saints Boss called out to his lieutenant in front of the crowd. "You got the Carnales. Ever since they hooked up with the Columbians, it's like they own this city and with that drug money rollin' in we can't compete. But be smart about how you move against 'em. The Lopez's been running that gang for thirty years. There's a reason they're still around."

Dex nodded to Julius and simply said "Got it."

Julius turned his attention to his second in command who was standing beside Gray.

"Troy, you're dealing with the Vice Kings—"

"Not a chance," Troy interrupted. He took a puff of his cigarette and exhaled the smoke as the room fell to a tense silence at Troy's blatant defiance to their leader.

"Fuck you say?" Julius asked sounding pissed. Everyone's eyes flitted between the two men, waiting for something to happen.

"Anyone but them." Troy shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly as he stood by his response.

"You scared of going against Benjamin King?"

"Man, fuck that! I'll take King out!" Johnny stepped forward from the crowd to stand out from the rest.

"Johnny, it's not that simple," Julius replied.

"Bullets still kill muthafuckas right?" Johnny smirked. "It doesn't get much easier than that."

Gray has maybe talked with Johnny a handful of times, but from what he has seen and heard about the man he can deduce that Johnny is in fact a trigger happy psychopath with a dark sense of humor. _I'm beginning to like this guy._

Julius seemed apprehensive about letting Johnny deal with the Vice Kings but agreed to it nonetheless. The Boss turned to Dex and told him to keep an eye on Johnny, to which the guy in question did not take too well.

"I don't need a fuckin' babysitter Julius!"

Julius ignored that last comment.

"Keep an eye on ya boy," Julius repeated more sternly. Dex nodded in agreement though he was pretty sure Johnny won't comply with being restrained.

"So who's got the Rollerz?"

"I do."

Gray's eyes glanced to the newcomer only to do a double take as she made her way across the room to the front. Her heels clicking against the stone floor of the church with each step.

Gray couldn't take his aqua green gaze off of her, she was so beautiful and she just oozed with confidence that astounded Gray. Her shiny black hair was pulled back into a stylish bun held up by a pair of chopsticks and her bangs swept to the side keeping them from hiding her beautiful chocolate brown eyes. She wore a black leather zip up vest that accentuated her cleavage and showed off her toned flat stomach. Gray couldn't help but notice a small tattoo of a dragon inked on the lower part of her curvaceous waist. Half of the tattoo was hidden behind the waist band of her blue track pants. _Wait, aren't the Saints colors purple?_

"Who is she?" Gray whispered to Troy.

"Lin?" Gray heard Johnny yell. _Lin? This is the woman Troy and Julius were talking about yesterday?_

"The fuck you're wearing blue for?" Johnny asked incredulously. Gray wasn't the only one to notice the different color she was wearing as well. Some of the people started muttering amongst themselves about her choice of wardrobe color.

"I asked Lin to hook up with the Rollerz," Julius explained on Lin's behalf to the crowd. "We don't know much about these fucka's, so I wanted one of us on the inside."

A guy in a pair of black baggy shorts and an equally baggy purple hoodie walked up to Lin from the crowd with a smirk across his face.

"I didn't know the Rollerz pimped hoes—"

The guy didn't get to finish his comment. Lin replied to him with her fist making a strong and powerful contact with the side of his jaw, knocking him out cold. The room erupted into a ruckus of cheers and laughter. _Gorgeous and tough? What a woman!_

Any other comments?" She calmly asked the crowd around her. Gray lowered his head to hide the grin widening his lips.

"Yeah when you punch, don't throw your shoulder so much," Johnny answered her clearly rhetorical question with his cocky smile.

"Shut up Johnny!"

Johnny just shrugged his shoulder and said "Hey, just sayin'."

Julius turned his attention to Gray, making the next bit of information exclusively for him.

"When you're ready to get down to business, go talk to one of these guys. They'll have something for you to do."

Lin turned to the man Julius was talking to and Gray quickly averted his gaze from her. From the corner of his eyes, he could see her smiling.

Gray could feel her eyes on him, checking him out. He pursed his lips to mask his smile as he tried to listen to Julius.

"It's our time now! Let's get this shit started!" Julius finished his speech.

The Saints applauded and Gray clapped with them like everyone else, but he wasn't looking at the leader.

"Now, before I let you all go, I want to officially welcome our latest recruit." Julius motioned for Gray to step forward and the Saints around him patted him on the back and pushed him forward toward the stage.

Walking up the stage, Gray passed by the beautiful Asian and for a split second their eyes met before he quickly turned his gaze back to his boss.

When he was close enough, Julius grabbed Gray and pulled him into a handshake/hug. Gray spun around to the cheering crowd with Julius' arm around his shoulders.

"I know a lot of stories have been going around about yesterday's battle and about our new guy right here. Well, I just want to tell you that they're all true!"

"YEAH!" the entire room cheered in unison for the young man that aided them in winning the final district of Saints Row.

"This crazy muthafucka ran through the middle of the fight, through crossfire, just to save one of our own. He took down any that tried to kill him out there on those docks. He took bullets for this crew! He bled for this crew! I am proud to call him a brother and I am even more proud to call him a Saint!"

The entire room exploded with the applause for their new brother in arm and praised his contributions to the Saints.

"We still got a lot of work ahead of us, but today let's celebrate our victory over taking back the Row!" The main doors opened and a group of Saints walked in with a couple of heavy coolers while a few others carried boxes of beer that couldn't fit in the containers.

Julius stepped down from the stage and the Saints made their way to the beverages being passed around.

Just as Gray stepped off the stage, he saw Lin making her way towards him. He couldn't help but notice the bit of sway her hips made when she walked over to him.

"So you're the new guy Julius recruited," she said to him, her lush red lips curved into a smile as she held out her hand for him.

"I'm Lin."

Gray took her hand in his and shook it. Her hands felt so soft against his own tough coarse palm and fingers.

"I'm Gray."

"Gray?" Lin asked. "That's an interesting name. Did your parents like the color that much?"

"No," he chuckled. "Gray is actually my last name."

"Oh really? Well then what's your first name?"

"I can't tell you."

Lin observed him, her eyebrow arched in suspicion.

"Why not?" She asked simply. _Persistent, isn't she?_

Gray stepped a little closer to her. He didn't know why he did that, it was almost instinctive. He lowered his head a bit so they could both be eye to eye.

"It's bad luck…to know my name."

Lin looked back at him, confused. She didn't know what to think of what he said. The way Gray said it made it sound like it was a joke but his eyes told her otherwise.

"You have an embarrassing name, don't you?" She teased him.

"Yeah, that's it, I have a really embarrassing name."

"Well now I really know what your name is," she laughed with him.

"Maybe someday I'll tell you."

Lin stepped a little closer to him. The closeness of her body made him feel a little uncomfortable and his body tensed up a bit.

"Well until that day comes, I guess I'll have to give you a name of my own."

"But I already told you," he stated, a puzzled expression on his face. "My name is—"

"Everyone else can call you Gray. I however, want to give you a name only I can call you. I like my things unique, custom made, you know."

Lin examined him closely trying to find something about Gray that stood out. He eyes fell to his chest when she noticed the shiny glint of his silver wolf pendent hanging above the ring. Her soft cool fingers lightly grazed his exposed skin as she took the wolf pendent into her hand.

Gray normally didn't like people touching his things without his permission, much less one of his most cherished possessions. However for some reason or another, he did not take back his pendent nor did it seem to bother him that she took it.

"This is really nice, silver isn't it?" Lin said as she turned over the pendent in her hands for a closer look. "You must have a thing for wolves."

"Yeah, I guess you can say that I have a certain…fondness for them," he smiled at her.

Finally Lin let go of the wolf pendent, letting it fall back to Gray's chest.

"I got it now," she excitedly said. "Wolfy."

"You're…you're joking right?" he chortled. _God, please tell me she's just kidding._

"Nope." She smiled devilishly. _Well, shit._ "From now on, I'm gonna call you Wolfy."

"No, there's no way I'm going to respond to the name Wolfy—"

"Lin! Gray!" The two heard someone call out to them. Over in the middle of the room they found Dex and Johnny waving them over.

"Too late, just accept it." Lin quickly said to him.

Before Gray could respond back, Lin walked off to the group, leaving the young man standing alone.

 _Well, I guess if I can't fight it, I better just agree to it. It could be worse, I suppose._ With a defeated sigh and a smile to follow, he obliged his new friends and walked over to the small group.

Troy and Dex made room for him on the wooden pew to sit down and Johnny passed him a chilled bottle of beer from the bottom of the blue ice filled cooler in the center of the circle.

"So Gray, I see that you've met our lady lieutenant," Johnny said after taking a swig from his bottle. "You would have met her sooner but she was too busy hanging with her Roller friends apparently."

Lin punched Johnny hard in the shoulder.

"OW! Dammit woman that hurt! I was just jokin' around!"

"Is this why you called us over? To make fun of me?"

"No, we just wanted you guys to chill with us," Troy explained. Lin relaxed a bit and sat back down on the pew and picked up her drink from the floor and took a drink of the beer.

"And we wanted to get to know our newest recruit as well." Johnny gave Gray a hearty pat on the back.

Gray gulped down a mouthful of his beer. _Oh, this will be fun,_ he thought sarcastically.

"So tell us playa," Julius began. "Where are you from?"

"Where I'm from?" Gray repeated. He looked around at the small crowd around him. "That is a complicated question to answer."

"What's so complicated about the question?" Troy queried rather suspiciously. "How do you not know where you're from?"

There he goes again. Troy's questioning sounding more like an interrogation of a criminal rather than a fellow brother.

"It's complicated, because I have lived in many different places that I called home," Gray answered coolly, looking straight at Troy. He turned back to everyone else before continuing his explanation.

"I lived in New York since I was thirteen with my uncle before I came here. Before moving to the Big Apple, we were living with our family in the UK since I was four years old when we moved from Italy. However I was born and raised in Spain for those first four years."

"Wow, you weren't kidding when you said you lived in a bunch of different places," Dex chuckled as he reached into the cooler to grab another beer.

"If you're from Europe, why don't you have an accent then?" Troy implored disbelievingly.

"Wow, seriously Troy?" Lin snapped at the second in command and slapped him hard on the shoulder. "You really had to ask why he doesn't have an accent?"

"What, It's a valid question!" he retorted back, rubbing his sore shoulder that throbbed with a dulling pain. "It's just weird that he's lived in a bunch of different places, a bunch of different countries and yet he doesn't have a hint of an accent."

Troy turned to Gray. "Look kid, I'm sorry if I offended you."

"Nah, you're fine Troy," Gray gave him a curt smile before taking a large gulp of his cold beverage. "I did have a British accent growing up since I lived in the UK the longest but I picked up the American accent a couple years after moving to the States. Watched a lot of American television, you know."

The small crowd chuckled at his response and muttered amongst themselves as they took to their drinks.

"So you lived with your uncle instead of your parents and you moved around a lot," Johnny spoke up, tossing his third empty bottle and opened his fourth with the bottle opener on his keychain. "Those are all the classic signs of a delinquent. I guess your parents couldn't handle you anymore and they left you with someone else eh?"

Gray didn't answer right away. "Actually," he began after a few moments. "My parents passed away."

Johnny choked on the beer and accidentally spat some of it out.

"Shit kid, I'm sorry," Johnny coughed out wiping the beer dribbling down his chin and clothes. "I sounded like such an asshole."

"It's okay," Gray chuckled reassuringly when he noticed the group became awkwardly silent. "They died a long time ago and I've long mourned their passing."

"How did they pass away, if you don't mind me asking?" Gray turned to Julius who asked.

 _Remember your story,_ Gray told himself. It was the 'official' story he would tell people when they asked these sort of questions.

"They…uh…they died in a car accident. I was young and don't remember much of what had happened."

"I'm sorry to hear that son," Julius solemnly said to him. The Saints boss raised his bottle forward. "To your parents."

"To your parents," everyone chanted and raised there bottles as well. A few of them clinked their bottles against Gray's raised bottle.

"Alright, alright how about we go onto a less depressing topic," Dex interjected after everyone paid their respects.

"Oh okay I got one!" Johnny announced excitedly. "Do you have a fine honey?"

The crowd around Gray playfully oohed in amusement as they waited for him to respond, especially the girls hanging around. A few of them seemed to have leaned closer towards him, hopeful to find out if he's in fact single.

Gray however, wasn't paying them any attention as it was on one particular woman who was gazing back at him with her beautiful chocolate brown eyes watching him with intrigue as she waited for his answer.

"I don't have a girlfriend right now," Gray informed the awaiting crowd. The girls surrounding were positively beaming with joy at the prospect of having a chance with him.

"Ah, I get it. You just wanna play the field and not get held down by one girl, eh?"

"Nah, that's not it. I like having a girlfriend and all, I just haven't found that special girl yet."

All the girls awed and sighed in admiration. Young heart breakingly handsome and is dedicated to one girl. What isn't there for these girls to not admire about him? Unfortunately for them Gray paid them no mind as he only had eyes for one girl sitting directly across from him, her gaze still on him.

Lin downed the last drops of her beer before asking questions of her own.

"So when was the last time you were in a relationship?" She asked, her slender fingers twiddling with the brim of her empty bottle.

"My last relationship was three years ago, just before I moved here." Gray remembered it well for it was part of the reason he left.

"WHAT!" Johnny blurted out. His face held a look of shock as if he heard the most disturbing news in his life. "How the hell are you still sane man?"

Gray just smiled and shrugged his shoulder as a reply.

"I mean, you had other women, right?" Johnny insisted, as if he was trying to reassure himself.

"No," Gray simply answered back. "I traveled so much and barely stayed in any one place for too long that I didn't want to start a relationship only to end it so abruptly when I move on to another town."

"Damn kid, I could never do that," Johnny sighed into the beer bottle nearing his lips and took a hearty swig. "You're definitely a rare sort, that's for sure."

"A one of a kind," Lin added. Gray turned to her and for the first time today, he saw a hint of softness in her tough confident personality and he couldn't help the smile that formed on his beaming face.

It was then that the moment was interrupted by a ringtone of a techno beat. Lin reached into her pocket and pulled out her cellphone. She took a quick glance at the illuminated screen before jumping up from her seat and tried to find a secluded part of the church.

"Oh look, Lin's talkin' with her besties," Johnny teased. Gray and the rest of the group laughed as Lin flipped Johnny off before walking over to a quieter spot to answer the call.

The rest of the group went back to talking amongst themselves, except for Gray who kept watching her discreetly as she talked animatedly on the phone.

He didn't know why this woman he just met caught his attention so. Yes she's beautiful, gorgeous even, as are many other woman that he's passed by, women that he could easily have but chooses to ignore. So why her? Why Lin?

Gray was quickly taken out of his train of thoughts when his ears picked up on Lin's voice from across the room. From what he could hear, she is pissed.

"Are you fuckin' kidding me?" She hissed into the phone. "I am tired of doing all of these damn small time jobs!"

"Look Lin," Gray heard a gruff male voice speaking from the other side of the line. "You gotta do these jobs if you wanna get up in the ranks, it's the only way and it's gonna take some time since you're new."

"Fine," she sighed. "I'll see you in a bit."

Lin hung up the phone and walked back to the group.

"Hey Julius, I gotta head out." Lin patted the older man on his shoulder.

"Alright babygirl, see you later then." He squeezed her hand briefly. "Stay safe out there."

"Will do. See ya guys later."

"Have fun with your new friends," Johnny smirked. Lin walked over to him and brandished her fists. Johnny quickly held his hands up in surrender.

"Hey, just kiddin' Lin. Go do your thang girl."

The crowd said their goodbyes to Lin and she waved bye to them all as she made her way to the front doors.

"Hey, I'll walk you to your car," Gray offered. He got up from the pew he was sitting on and walked over to Lin waiting for him to walk out together into the bright sunlight.

Lin led him around the corner to the small parking lot where a few cars belonging to the Saints were parked and led him to a blue and white voxel that certainly stood out from the others.

"Like my ride?" She asked Gray.

"Yeah, it's a really sweet car," he responded back as he admired her ride. He could tell she cherished this car.

"You worked on it yourself?"

"Yup, I fixed this car to be the fastest in Stilwater," Lin boasted. "Nobody has been able to beat me yet."

"Well then, I might have to find out if your car really is as fast as you claim."

"Is that a challenge?" She asked, her perfectly manicured eyebrow arched quizzically. "What do you drive?"

Gray pointed over to his car parked on the side of the road.

"Is that a bootlegger?" Lin laughed. "You really think a bootlegger can outrace my voxel?"

"Well, I did avoid the cops in it and I have been told that I drive even better than you."

"Oh really?" She asked with a bit of a sarcastic tone in her voice. Lin crossed her arms in front of her chest as she stared back at him. "And may I ask who said this?"

"Well for the safety of the person, their name shall remain anonymous," Gray told her with a sly smile.

"Mmmhmm, sure," Lin giggled as she opened the car door. "Well I better get going. I need to make a good impression if I ever want to do more than these stupid small time jobs they have me working on."

"It's because you're still new," Gray told her, repeating the words he overheard that Rollerz tell her on the phone. "They'll come around once you have proven yourself to them."

Lin smiled at him kindly. "Thanks, I needed that little pep talk."

"No problem."

Gray stepped back to let her leave as she slowly drove her car towards the parking lot exit when she suddenly stopped.

"Oh, wait!" Lin called out to him. She turned away from Gray for a few moments. When she turned back to him, she tossed her phone to Gray. He caught it easily in one hand.

"Put your number in it so I can call you when it's time to make a move."

Gray obliged her request and typed his number into her contact list. He was about to type in his name when he saw that it had already been filled out. He rolled his eyes as he read Wolfy on the contact name.

Lin asked for his phone to put her number in for him. Once they exchanged their phones back, Lin started the engine of her car.

"Hope to see you soon, _Wolfy_ ," She smiled at him with a wink. He playfully rolled his eyes at her nickname for him, but he quickly noticed the slight flirtatious tone of her voice, especially when she called him Wolfy.

Lin waved to him as she drove out of the parking lot and drove down the empty street.

As he watched her car getting smaller and smaller as it drove further away, he felt a slight tinge of excitement at the thought of seeing her again. Hopefully soon.

As his mind stayed on Lin, he began to remember the dream he had earlier and the smile he thought would be stuck on his face began to wane as he came down to two conclusions.

One: He is a monster, nothing less. And two: If he values her life, he must not get close to Lin.


	6. The monster within

**Hey guys, well I have returned with a new chapter.**

 **Okay so this chapter was actually gonna be longer. much MUCH longer. You might have remembered me saying in my authors note in the previous chapter that I had started working on this chapter months ago. while that is very true, I unfortunately didn't get to finish it and so it was half done when I came back to it so now I am starting to go into uncharted territory and unlike my previous chapters, I won't have whole chapters to use as a guide so I will once again have to start writing what comes to mind, which I won't mind. I am looking forward to not have to follow guidelines again. The only problem is that I will not be posting chapters as fast as I have been. If you are one of the readers that followed my original story, you remember how slow my chapters updates were. LOL**

 **So as I said earlier, this chapter was going to be much longer, and it was. This is actually the first half of the chapter but once I started get finish up what I had already typed up and started having to start thinking up what else to write, I realized this was going to take a lot longer than I thought and I didn't want to leave you guys with nothing. So I decided to break the chapter into two separate ones. Don't worry, the next chapter will be longer than this one, that is definitely for sure. CH.7 already has well over 6,000 words and I am not even close to being done with it.**

 **On a separate note, I wanted to tell you all that after I post CH.7 I will take a small break from Monster of Stilwater. THIS STORY WILL NOT BE ON HIATUS OR BE ABANDONED! (Sorry if it looks I am yelling, I am just trying to make a point)** **I have other projects that I have been working on and want to put more time into them so that I could start posting those chapters as well. So I repeat I am NOT abandoning this story nor would I ever. I have sequels and trilogies, hell even a whole saga for this story. So for my die hard fans out there, rest assured this story is here to stay.**

 **I will put up more information about my new story soon on my profile if you are curious about my new project.**

 **Okay, with all that said and done, here is the sixth chapter, I hope you all enjoy it and please let me know.**

* * *

The Monster of Stilwater (A reboot)

Ch.6

The Monster within

The dusty air of the old warehouse smelled of the salty sea of the harbor outside its rusted metal walls as did the scent of fresh blood that swirled and mingled together over the dozens of dead bloodied bodies scattered on the damp cement floor. Amongst the dead a few remained alive, but just barely. Some lied still, waiting for the moment of death to come for them, others moaned in agony as they tried to crawl out of the building hoping for a chance to survive, their hands slipping on the slick bloodied floor only to fall back down with a dull thud following them. These soldiers of the Carnales aren't alone however. Limping his way carefully through the mess, Gray made sure not to step on anyone as he made his way across the large room.

This building, this warehouse up until half an hour ago was used as a Carnales dust lab. The past three months Dex has ordered Gray to destroy the gang's drug labs, crippling them by taking out the Carnales main source of income before attacking them head on. Smart move.

Every day Gray was sent a text of a new location and every day he destroyed the labs. Eventually the Carnales grew tired of the unknown Saint that has been ruining their income and killing their men, so they provided more arsenal and even more guards at their remaining labs hoping that they could finally kill him. Even with all their arsenal and extra guards, Gray was still able to kill them all and destroy the dust labs. This warehouse was their last and most heavily guarded but Gray took them all out, unfortunately he did not win the fight unscathed.

As he limped to the small area the Carnales used as a station for making the drugs, Gray could feel his legs tremble under his weight as the adrenaline of the fight began to wear off, making him feel the aching and throbbing pain that coursed through his body with every step he took. He could feel the source of pain; a bullet found its way into his left leg just above his knee. His blood staining the blue denim jeans he wore.

When he could no longer walk, Gray stopped near a metal support beam to keep him standing still. He bowed his throbbing head; a trickle of blood began trailing from a wound on the top hidden by his dirtied brown hair.

On his back he could feel the stinging throb of five bullets burrowed into his skin, six more were lodged into his front torso. Those were nothing compared to the pain on his right side of his body. Looking down as he slowly lifted his dirtied shirt to find his skin torn open a good few inches with three bloody broken ribs sticking out of the gash. He barely touched the wound before he swung his hand away grunting in pain at the slightest touch.

"Ah God damn that hurts!" he hissed as the pain throbbed.

This is strange. These wounds that covered him should have healed by now. At the very least his body should have pushed the bullets out and closed the wounds but nothing was happening. Blood kept pouring from the open wounds and pooling onto the floor around his feet.

His hands dripped with the blood of his enemies at the tips of his protruding claws that slowly began to retract back to normal fingernails. His clothes were drenched with blood of the Carnales that lied around him. He looked like he survived a horror movie. Just barely.

Gray turned his gaze to the scene in front of him, to see the work he'd done a few minutes ago. The blood that splattered the floor and walls, the bodies that lied still covered in their own blood. The wounds they earned bled profusely. Some Gray could see were from his gun that hanged lazily from his holster on his hip. Others he saw carried much deeper wounds. Long gash marks carved into their skin. It looked as if someone had slashed them with a sharp blade. The few that were still alive begged for help as they slowly crawled across the damp concrete floor. He didn't feel pity for these men suffering for what he did to them. These guys are thugs who hurt innocent people for fun. Even though they deserve everything they got here, Gray knew that he shouldn't have lost control. No matter if they were his enemy they didn't deserve to be attacked like that. Gray didn't even know when he used his claws during the fight.

Minutes ago...

"Shit! Shit! Shit!" Gray yelled. His voice was muffled by the purple bandana he tied around his head to cover his mouth. He ran through the barrage of bullets raining down on him from above. Six of those bullets managed to pierce into his body; two on his chest and four on his back to add to the other bullets. He ran to the stairs and climbed the metal steps. Ignoring the pain Gray continued to run up the steps. When he reached the top he was welcomed with more bullets flying past him. A few missed his face by mere centimeters thanks to his fast reflexes.

Gray ran down the metal walkway to meet with the first Carnales thug in his way. The man brandished his T3K Urban at Gray and was ready to press on the trigger. Before he could release the bullets, Gray grabbed the man's gun hand and smashed it against the railing then grabbed him by the head and slammed it against the railing as well. The metal bars vibrated from the impact as Gray let the unconscious body slump down onto the floor. Gray jumped over the body and continued onto the next opponent.

As he was fighting with three other thugs Gray didn't notice a fourth man across the room on another walkway with a 12 Gauge pointed at him. Gray barely heard the blast from the shotgun and attempted to move out of the way, but he was too late to respond; the bullet struck him in the knee, blasting the bone to shards as it burrowed itself deeper into his leg. Gray fell with a loud thud following him. His fingers barely grazed the wound before an agonizing pain shocked through his body.

The thugs took this moment of opportunity and continued to beat Gray. He gasped for air when they kicked him in the stomach. He could feel each foot strike him hard in the back, in the stomach. His sight was in a haze for a moment when someone stomped him hard in the face. The ones that weren't kicking him proceeded to hit him with bats and pipes. If he was an average human, he would have been already been dead.

Gray could feel his emotions rise as he continued to get beaten. His breathing became more rapid and heavy, his chest rumbled with the vibration of his growls as he felt himself begin to lose control.

His sight began to blur and shake. For a moment Gray couldn't see anything and then in the next moment, everything was red and he could see his assailants very clearly as they continued to beat him. His heart raced in his chest threatening to burst through. He could feel his body trembling with the mix of power and adrenaline coursing through himself. The pain was no longer an issue for him; he couldn't feel the painful shock anymore. In fact, each hit seemed to fuel that animalistic anger that longed to burst out of him.

Then it happened, before he could stop himself. Gray's claws grew out long and sharp ready to strike. They slashed through the metal walkway as if it was butter, sending sparks into the air. In a quick flash he was up on his feet. The sudden action surprised the assailants.

Gray smiled at them darkly. It was unnerving to them to see him smile with blood smeared on his face.

His eyes were wide with glee at the pain he was going to bring to these people. This was no longer the Gray in control. For so long he exercised control so something like this couldn't happen. Even if these thugs deserved it, he shouldn't slaughter them like this. To kill them when he isn't himself.

One of them had gotten their nerves to work again and tried to charge at Gray with their metal pipe ready to strike him. Gray didn't even turn around to see the guy. He just grabbed him by the arm just before the thugs was about to swing the weapon. Gray grabbed the pipe from the thugs threw it at another's head knocking them unconscious. Returning to the person he held in his hand. He saw the fear in the guy's face as he gave him a sinister smile. With one last look Gray threw the thug over the railing. The Carnales thug screamed until his body smacked onto the concrete floor in a sickening crunch.

"You're gonna pay for that you Saint Bitch!" Gray heard another Carnales thug yell at him. He saw that he was a tough beefy looking guy. The brute ran at Gray shooting his pistol at him like a maniac determined to kill the young man that killed his fellow brother. Gray avoided every single shot with ease. When the man was close enough, Gray grabbed him by his gun arm and slammed it against the railing like the one from a few minutes before. The thug pulled out a switchblade from his back pocket and slashed it at Gray only to miss his face by inches. When he slashed at him again Gray caught his hand and pried his fingers from the weapon and slammed the guy's head on the railing. The thug was still conscious but had a dazed look.

"Well aren't you resourceful," Gray chuckled as he pocketed the blade. "I'm resourceful too." Gray turned to the others standing some distance away. "Just watch this."

He threw his arm back and swung forward piercing deep into the beefy thugs gut and out his back. The group of Carnales thugs watched in horror at what they had witnessed.

Gray removed his hand from the body, half of his arm was covered in blood. He dropped the thug's body over the railing and casually walked towards the rest of the group ready to finish them off.

Though they were still shocked at what they saw, that display of viciousness did not stop them from attacking the assailant with all they've got, no longer are they on the offensive, now they have to fight to defend themselves.

Gray ran up to the closest guy and slashed him from belly to chest with his claws, the man's blood sprayed onto Gray's clothes and face. The man fell onto the walkway and Gray stepped over him. His fingers dripped with the blood of his victims.

Gray saw another Carnales soldier pointing a pistol at him. Gray moved so fast the poor thug didn't even realize Gray was beside him. As soon as he aimed at him again, Gray grabbed the guy's gun and hand and posed it under the Carnales' chin and kept pressing on the trigger until the pistol was emptied. The top of the man's head was practically gone, the chunks of his head littered by his feet. The pieces squelched under Gray's shoes as he walked over to his next victim.

The next one was a younger one of the lot probably no older than what Gray looked. His eyes were wide with fright as he backed away from the intimidating figure walking calmly to him with a dark smirk upon his blood streaked face.

The young Carnales tried to back away further from Gray only to trip over a body of one of his friends. His hands slipped in the pool of blood as he tried to get back up. When he turned over Gray was already towering over him, claws dripping with blood and poised to soak it into more.

"No please, have mercy on me!" the young Carnales soldier begged with his hands raised in surrender. Gray relaxed his body a bit and lowered his hands.

"Fine, I'll have mercy on you," Gray answered back. "I make sure you die quickly". Before the young man could beg for him to stop Gray raised his sharp claws and slashed him, once at the stomach, his innards spilling out onto the floor. The second slash of his claws made contact with the young thugs neck, cutting so deep Gray nearly took the kids head off completely.

On and on it went. More thugs climbed up the metal steps and tried to take out the one man army that is Gray and each one failed horribly and miserably. Gray slashed and stabbed and threw the Carnales soldiers off the walkway and to their deaths, if they weren't already dead from the wounds.

One almost had Gray. He was on another walkway. Gray noticed it was the same guy that shot him in the knee. Oh boy did he want payback and he was going to get it. Instead of the tombstone in hand, the thug now carried a rocket launcher on his shoulder.

The walkway was clear for him to march towards the bastard some ways ahead of him. In fact Gray and the thug were the only ones left alive.

The thug loaded the rocket launcher and aimed it at the Saint making his way towards him. He didn't know how that Saint managed to kill all of his fellow soldiers or is still managing to walk let alone stand with his wounds but this rocket should finish the job. No one could survive a direct hit.

Gray knew he wouldn't get a chance to attack him dead on, not with that rocket launcher aimed at him, ready to launch at him. He wouldn't be able to sink his claws into the pitiful human. But he could sink something else into him.

Gray went from a walk to a jog, picking up speed. There was a large gap in between the walkways. If he was going to kill the thug, he is going to have to jump in order to execute the attack. The jog became a run; the steps he took shook the walkway.

The edge was just under his feet and Gray launched himself into the air. The thug followed Gray's body and aimed at his chest and fired the rocket.

There was a moment of pause where nothing happened yet. Gray took advantage of this moment to do what he needed.

Before Gray had jumped from the walkway, he slipped his hand into his pocket that carried the weapon and hid it in his palm to wait for the moment to use it.

Now was the time. It was as if time had slowed, giving Gray the time to aim and throw the blade just as the rocket came his way. The blade curved around the rocket spinning in the air until it made its mark. The soldier was knocked off his feet and his head flung back from the impact of the blade sticking in between his eyes.

Gray couldn't move away from the path of the rocket coming his way. He had been paying attention to last victim falling from the metal walkway to the floor sixty feet below. With nothing he could do, Gray braced himself for the impact.

The rocket hit him in the chest and exploded on impact. He felt his bones crack from the impact of the rocket, for a moment he felt the blinding pain before he was engulfed in a cloud of heat and smoke. The impact threw Gray backwards; his body hit the railing hard, actually denting the sturdy solid metal on impact and fell onto the concrete ground with the bodies of dead Carnales thugs splayed out around him.

The fall seemed to have brought him back in control but Gray could still feel his feral nature fighting over dominance as he slowly got back up on his feet.

Gray's phone began to ring just as he finished tying the purple bandana around his busted knee. The pressure took some of the pain away and slowed the bleeding some. He reached into his pocket and checked the screen for the caller. It was Dex. With a sigh, Gray clicked on the answer button and placed the phone to his ear.

"Hey man, you're still alive! How did you do?" Dex asked. It sounds like he is driving. Gray took one last look around at the warehouse. His eyes stopped at the corner on the other side of the room to find the remains of the Carnales' drug set up scattered on the floor. Gray's doing from earlier when he first came into the building.

"Job's done, the Carnales no longer have any dust labs to call their own. Julius can send some of the guys into the turf and clean out any stragglers still hanging around."

"That's great man! Head over to the church and we'll celebrate our victory."

Gray looked down at himself. There was no way he could go looking and feeling like he did right now.

"That sounds great but I can't go." Gray answered Dex back. He had to lean on the metal beam for support when his bad leg began to falter as he limped his way to the exit. The pain was feeling worse. "I'm a little banged up."

"Oh shit, are you alright?"

"Oh yeah, yeah I'm fine." Gray lifted his shirt and saw the gash still open. It hadn't even closed a little. "Nothing a few painkillers and some sleep won't fix."

"You sure you don't need someone to take you to the hospital? I can send someone over."

"No man, I think I'll be okay."

Dex sighed. "Alright then. Well, go home and get some rest. I'll tell Julius and the others to let you have the rest of the week off to recuperate."

"Thanks Dex, I really appreciate it," Gray said with relief. These wounds weren't healing fast enough if at all and he would be of no use to them still injured.

"Hey no problem. It's the least I can do since you have been a big help to us. Get better soon, alright man?"

"Yeah Dex, I will. Talk to you later." Gray ended the call and pocketed his phone. For a moment he just stood there leaning on the metal support beam. Exhaustion was overcoming his own strength. He wanted nothing more than to just fall onto the floor and lay there. Gray's battered body slowly began to slide down the beam, inching him closer to the dirty floor.

Gray's ears suddenly perked at the distant sound of sirens. They didn't sound too far away, possibly six or seven blocks from the warehouse but they were coming fast. With a long groan Gray straightened himself up and trudged his way across the room.

His car was parked around the corner. Gray was thankful he didn't take the Estrada or riding off would have been really hard. He slumped into the driver's seat and started the engine and began to drive off. The cop cars passed Gray as he drove down the street, unsuspecting that he is the reason they were called out to the docks.

Gray was relieved to be home. It was a long day and he didn't feel any better than when he left the docks. All he wanted was to shower off all this blood and relax. Since he now has a week off, Gray planned on sleeping the whole time to catch up on any of his missed nights.

His muscles relaxed as the steaming hot water soothed them as he let the water cascade down on his blood and dirt stained body. When he got out, Gray examined his wounds again. They were healing but just barely. Though he hated to admit it, he was going to need help getting patched up, especially in taking out those bullets and he had no idea how to deal with the two broken rib bones still sticking out of his body. Fortunately for him, there was someone in town that could help him.

Gray wrapped the black towel around his waist and made his way to the kitchen where his phone lied on the round wooden table. He scrolled through the contacts until he found the name he wanted and pressed the call button and waited to be answered.

The phone rang three times before a voice answered on the other line.

"Hello?"

"Hey, I'm sure you're probably really busy at the hospital right now but I could really use you help as soon as possible."

"Dammit that hurts!" Gray yelled in pain. He sat in chair by his table in the kitchen in just a pair of beige cargo shorts. His bare chest and back were covered with bandages over the bullet wounds he sustained earlier. On the table was a small metal tray that had the bloodied bent bullets that were taken out from him.

The person Gray called over, Cael, was pressing down hard on the two ribs trying to push them back in place. Gray sat at the table in the kitchen while his friend worked on him. He clenched his hands tight on the arm rests of the solid oak chair he sat on and gritted his teeth as he endured the pain. He could hear the wood snapping under his tight grip.

"Well if you would stop moving away I wouldn't have to keep pressing so hard," Gray's friend said with a smile.

"You know I figured when you left New York you were going to lay low."

Gray chuckled. "I am." Cael gave him a look that said 'yeah right.' "Alright I WAS laying low."

"I thought you weren't going to get involved in these gangs. Isn't that what you told me when a while back?"

Cael took out some thread and a needle after cleaning the gash. After setting the bones back in place he wanted to sew the wound closed.

"Things changed," Gray answered his friend as Cael sewed the wound on his chest closed.

Once Cael finished sewing up the wound and cut the thread from the needle, he turned his eyes from his work and grabbed his bandages to wrap around Gray's torso.

"Enlighten me then, man. What changed your mind after being here for two years?"

Gray sighed and got up from his chair when Cael finished wrapping his wound and slipped on the light blue button up and rolled the sleeves just below his elbow and left the shirt unbuttoned. He walked, well limped a bit to the fridge on his bandaged leg. He grabbed a couple of cold beers and tossed one to Cael who caught it with little effort. He knew it was useless to lie to Cael or beat around the bush with his answer.

Gray sat down and twisted the cap off the bottle and took a quick swig before giving his answer. "These gangs, they are nothing more than a pack of wild dogs. I have watched how they've gotten worse day by day and did nothing. They go into each other's turf starting wars, destroying buildings, killing innocent people for kicks. I didn't want to be a bystander anymore, watching these 'rabid dogs' running around hurting people. After that fight here in the Row, even though I told Julius that I didn't want to join at first, I knew that I could make a difference and end these useless wars."

"I get what you mean Alec," Cael said as he took a drink. "I have been working at Stilwater General for the past few months and I have been dealing with victims of these gangs and I can't believe humans could do these things to innocent people. Sometimes I just want to go out there and hunt down these lowlifes myself for what they did."

"Then why don't you?" Gray asked him after a moment of silence passed between the two friends. "With the both of us out there, we could finish these gangs in a heartbeat."

"None of those gangs would stand a chance against us," Cael chortled, taking another hearty drink and placed the half empty bottle on the table but he kept his hands on it still. "But I think my skills are more needed at the hospital. God only knows you need it."

Gray and Cael both laughed together. It had been a long time since the both of them had just hung out like this. He missed these times with his oldest friend. They had known each other for so long he was basically his brother in all but blood. Everything that Gray has been through, Cael was always by his side. These past couple of years was one of the few times that they were separated from each other. Though Gray expressed his disdain for Cael to be out here watching over him, he was glad be with his old friend again.

"So what gave you these injuries, I forgot to ask." Cael queried Gray as they finished their drinks.

"Mostly bullets," Gray answered him. He placed a hand tenderly on his ribs. They didn't hurt as bad as they did earlier but they were still not healing. All of his wounds should have healed by now. "But it was an RPG that did this."

"An RPG?" Cael asked surprised.

"Yeah a direct hit too." Gray sighed. "But I have survived worse."

"Yeah you have," Cale chuckled at him. "Many times in fact. Remember that minefield in Vietnam? I thought for sure you were blown to bits." They both took drinks and laughed as they remembered the good ole' times.

"Believe me so did I. Never had I ran so hard in my life."

They both laughed as they finished drinking their bottles. For a moment the room was just silent as they sat in the kitchen.

"Oh Before I forget—" Cael trailed off a bit as he grabbed another bag next to his medical bag. It was one of those coolers hospitals used to transport human organs from the table and reached inside. Unzipping the top he pulled out one of the six packets that Gray recognized instantly.

Gray's body stiffened when Cael dropped the jiggling packets onto the wooden surface of the table.

"When you told me you weren't healing, I brought these to help you out." Gray listened to what his friend was telling him but he didn't break contact with the blood packets before him. The red liquid inside swayed a bit from the vibrations of being dropped onto the table.

Cael sat back into his seat resting one hand on the table thumping his fingers against the solid oak wood as the other scratched the burned half of his face. He stared at his friend deep in thought for a few moments before he posed Gray with a question.

"Have you been feeding?" Gray finally turned his gaze back to Cael.

"Yeah of course I have." He answered as if the question was absurd.

Cael stopped thumping his fingers. "No, I mean actually feeding." His voice sounded serious.

Gray knew what Cael meant when he said 'actually feeding'. Cael didn't need Gray to give him an answer. He could see his answer on his face. Cael didn't realize it before, maybe he thought it was because Gray had been hurt pretty badly, but his friend looked a bit off color and the skin around his eyes looked dark like he hasn't slept in a long time. His eyes themselves didn't have the same brightness that he was used to seeing.

"Are you sure you should be giving these to me?" Gray muttered to his friend. Cael observed Gray's movements. He seemed to look calm but he could see he was anything but. Gray kept tapping his feet and his body remained stiff in his seat.

"Alec," he sighed in exasperation. He pinched the bridge of his nose in between his eyes. "You can't live off of animal's blood forever. You need real nourishment."

"You know I can't drink human blood."

"Yes you can." Cael turned to the two blood packets. They both had the label of Stilwater General Hospital.

Cael held the packets out for Gray to take but he refused them.

"Alec, feeding off of the animal's blood barely gives you half the nourishment you get from human blood. This is why you aren't healing as fast. You need the human blood, especially if you are going to continue doing jobs for the Saints."

Gray took a deep breath and said "You sound like Daemon, only not as demented."

Cael gave him a small amused smile. "Well, he isn't completely wrong in this." He held out his hand again with the packets. Gray stared at them. He knows he needs them but he couldn't stop thinking about what could happen if the blood really gets to him.

"It's not like you're drinking from the source itself." Cael said to him as if reading his mind. Gray looked to him, his eyes still held uncertainty but he gave in and took them. "I know you can control yourself, I've seen you do it many times. It's what you're good at."

Gray stared at the packets in his hand. The liquid swished around a bit as he got up from his seat and walked across the room. He turned to Cael who waited for him to drink and turned back around to where he opened the fridge and placed the packets beside the jars of animal's blood he had gotten from the butcher's.

Cael sighed in defeat. He had to admit, he admired his friends will and determination to not harm innocents but he still worried for his health and well-being. If Gray doesn't get the nourishment he needs, he could get into real trouble. Especially in the line of work he is in.

Gray watched as Cael got up from his seat. He looked a bit disappointed at him for not drinking the blood but there was nothing he could do. It is Gray's decision to drink it if he wants to.

"Well I better get going," Cael said as he stretched his legs and arms as he got up from his chair. "If there are any problems with your injuries, let me know and I will check them out." Gray nodded to him and they both made their way to the front door. Alec opened it and Cael made his way through. Before Gray could close it, Cael turned around to face him.

"You know Alec, that animal blood is only a safety net for us. It's not meant to be a meal for us for the rest of our lives. Eventually, you are going to reject it and you will really need those blood packets more than ever."

Gray nodded in agreement. Cael gave Gray a pat on the shoulder. "I only say this because I care about you. You're my best friend, my brother." Gray smiled at him a Cael returned one too as they both came in for a hug.

"Thank you, brother." Gray gave Cael a pat on the back and they released each other from the embrace. Cael walked down the steps and toward his car with his medical bag in hand. He gave Gray one last wave of goodbye before getting in his car and driving off.

Gray returned inside and went back into the kitchen and sat back at the table. For a while he sat there, contemplating the conversation he had with Cael until he could feel his hunger getting to him. He got back up and made his way to the fridge and opened the door.

He had two options now; the animal blood in the jars and the human blood in the packets. His hands lingered above the packets, tempted to take one of them. With a sigh he moved his hand further back and grabbed the large brown paper bag from the back of the fridge and carried it to the table. He pulled out one of the clear glass jars that carried his supply of pig's blood and poured it into his favorite blue mug with the faded white lettering of his school's name and placed it in the microwave to warm up.

When the microwave beeped he walked over to the small appliance and took out the now hot liquid and poured it into the mug and sat back down at the table.

Gray brought the mug to close to his lips, feeling the warm steam roll onto his skin caressing his nose as he inhaled the scent. It didn't smell that great, which was normal for animals blood. It wasn't the same as human blood. Nothing was as good as human blood. He glanced back at the fridge one last time, thinking if he should just drink the packets. Cael was right about him, he was definitely good at controlling himself. Well, at least around innocent people. He can manage to channel his more aggressive instincts to those who deserve it. But he still remains wary of himself.

Gray took a sip of the hot drink. As soon as it spilled into his mouth, his face cringed at the bitter taste, swallowing the drink hard down his throat. He didn't want to tell Cael this but for the past few weeks the taste of animals blood has become less desirable to him. What Cael had told him earlier has already begun.

Gray couldn't even take another drink, the blood was repulsing him. He got up from his seat with haste and walked over to the fridge and dumped the blood down the sink. There was no use in drinking it anymore nor was there any use in trying to deny his thirst for the packets cooling in the fridge. Without thinking he walked the few feet to the fridge and took out one of the packets and poured the fresh blood into the cleaned out mug and placed it in the microwave again.

He could smell the blood before he opened the door. Now this one smells delicious. When he opened the microwave door, the scent wafted around his nose assaulting his senses with its alluring aroma. He inhaled deeply and slowly exhaled from his watering mouth.

Gray sat back down at the table in his usual seat by the window he placed mug by his lips and slowly drank the red liquid making sure to pace himself. The taste was the complete opposite of the other he spilled down the drain just minutes before. The slow pace of drinking this blood became more rapid as his thirst for more became stronger.

The last drops fell into Grays mouth and he placed the mug on the table as he relaxed into his seat, feeling satisfied with the meal. He could feel his body begin the process of healing. By tomorrow he should be healed completely. However he couldn't help feeling wary at the newfound energy that was flowing through his body, no doubt from the human blood. He took slow deep breaths and tried to remain relaxed in the chair.

" _ **Well damn, and I thought we were going to eat out on the town."**_ Gray eyes snapped open and his hands began to tighten around on the armrests. Him again. God forbid should he ever feel a bit out of control, Daemon is always there ready to take over. Slowly Gray turned his head towards the passenger side and sure enough he saw Daemon sitting in the seat across from him. It was like looking at a mirror with the exception of the different expressions that shown on their face; one wore a mask of disdain and annoyance while the other wore a relaxed nonchalant look.

" _ **Or eat the town, I would definitely prefer that,"**_ Daemon said in his cold calm voice. He opened the bag carrying the blood and pulled out the half-filled jar with a look of disgust as he swashed the blood around.

" _ **I'm glad you changed your diet,"**_ He exclaimed as he placed the played around with the half-filled jar. Daemon unscrewed the lid and sniffed the blood, his face scrunched in disgust. He screwed the lid back on to the jar and placed it back in the bag. "Because honestly, even the shit smelling bums around this city smell better than that swill you keep buying from that butcher."

"What are you doing here?" Gray hissed at the intruder.

" _ **Oh you know, had to stretch my legs a bit. I was feeling a bit cramped."**_ Daemon sat back in a more relaxed manner and stretched out his body resting his legs on the table. Gray gritted his teeth as a snarl escaped his lips. It was bad enough that the evil homicidal side of him was always in his head whispering suggestions to him but it was another when the bastard actually makes an appearance. Even in an incorporeal form, he still caused Gray much trouble.

" _ **I have to admit, I was surprised you took the easy road so quickly. I thought you would try to hold off a bit more before digging into the good stuff."**_ Daemon leaned over and took the blue mug from in front of Gray and wiped the sides collecting the blood that still remained in the mug and licked the remnants off his finger. _**"This is really delicious. Tastes like it belonged to a young woman, twenty, possibly twenty-one years old."**_

" _ **Speaking of young woman, look!"**_ Gray snapped his eyes to the sight Daemon was pointing out the window beside them. She looked no older than twenty with a slender curvaceous body that swayed side to side with every step she took as she walked down the sidewalk. She took notice of Gray watching her. He wanted to turn away but he just couldn't do it. The young woman gave him a flirtatious smile and a quick wave as she passed the front of his house, her hips swaying a bit at the one man audience. He returned her a smile out of courtesy that quickly turned back to a frown.

" _ **Pretty one isn't she?"**_ Daemon sneered. He glanced over at Gray who wore a hardened look upon his face to show no emotion to the uninvited guest beside him. Gray might be great at masking his emotions on his face but he couldn't hide the tight grip he still kept on the armrest from Daemon. He could hear the solid oak wood strain under his grasp.

" _ **Black hair, blue eyes, smooth olive skin and one hell of a body, she's just our type."**_ Daemon kept his cold calm eyes on his counterpart. _**"She reminds me of her. Doesn't she remind you of Aelia—"**_

"DON'T YOU DARE SAY HER NAME!" Gray roared out. He slammed his hand onto the sturdy wooden table leaving a hand shaped dent on the surface. The anger he tried to hide was now out. His body shook with anger at Daemon. "You have NO right to EVER say her name."

Daemon raised his hands in surrender but he could help but let a dark grin spread across his face, seeing the reaction he was getting from Gray.

The fuming young man grabbed the ring hanging beside his chest and held it in his right hand, rubbing the cool silver metal as if it calmed him. He did find holding the ring and the wolf pendent a source of comfort to him. She, Aelia, was always a source of comfort for him. Now, the two items he kept around his neck were the closest he could get to her.

"Besides she doesn't even look like her." Gray muttered.

" _ **Alright, alright but you have to admit, she looks tasty."**_

"Stop it."

" _ **Stop what?"**_

"Stop trying to get me to feed off people," Gray snapped at him. "You will never convince me to feed off people like an animal, like you again."

Daemon let out an exasperated sigh. _**"When are you gonna freakin' learn? You are not a human! They are our food. Stop trying to be like them and embrace what you really are because I am tired of drinking that disgusting pig's blood!"**_ Daemon moved closer to Gray. _**"I know you are too. That's why you drank that blood packet. You tell yourself it was to cure you, but I know that wasn't it."**_

Gray didn't answer. Though Daemon didn't need an answer, he already knew it was true. He knew how Gray disliked the animal's blood. How he secretly longed for the taste of the blood of humans only to quickly quell those thoughts from his mind and berate himself for thinking such thoughts. Much to Daemon's annoyance and disgust, Gray continues to drink the swill to sate his hunger rather than feed from a person for fear that he could accidently kill them. God did he hate Gray and his constant feelings of humanity and guilt and whatever other human emotion that plagued him.

Then Gray drank the packet of human blood, his first real drink in two years. Daemon just wished it came from the source itself but he'll take what he can get.

 _ **"You can do it you know. You can do it and you wouldn't feel bad about it if you just let me out—"**_

"NO!" Gray yelled he turned to Daemon only to see him smiling back at him.

" _ **You can say no all you want, it won't matter,"**_ he chuckled as he opened the bag and picked up one of the jars again. _**"All of this effort to keep yourself muzzled will be all for nothing. Eventually, this blood will no longer work for you. It already isn't."**_

Daemon sat up and moved closer to Gray.

Gray remained silent as he sat in his seat, trying to ignore the words of his mirrored self.

" _ **I can feel you're longing for the taste you can't deny it. The warmth of it flowing into your mouth. The pleasure you feel with their life in the palm of your hand. You remember that feeling well I'm sure. I mean it was because of it that you had to leave your home after what happened with those people—"**_

"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Gray roared, his anger finally coming out in a huge quick burst. He swung his arm hard and fast across the table. His arm hit the chair Daemon sat in flinging it across the room in a loud crash against the wall, hoping to hit him only to find Daemon was no longer there. He took slow deep breaths to calm himself down. Finally he began to fill calm after a couple of minutes and stood up from his seat to pick up the chair, or the remains of it. He sighed in annoyance at his own stupidity at losing his cool over some incorporeal form of his other side.

Once he cleaned up the mess in the kitchen fatigue began to overcome his senses. His body, though healing at its normal rate now, was feeling the soreness of the day's events. He began thinking of his large comfortable bed and how inviting it was to him right now.

He walked into his cool dark room and undressed himself until he was only in his grey boxer briefs and plopped himself onto his plush comforter. A sharp gasp escaped his throat as a bout of pain coursed through his body. He forgot for a moment about his healing wounds. Once the throbbing pain ceased he got into a more relaxed position on his bed and closed his eyes, hoping and praying for that he could go to sleep without any trouble.

* * *

 **Wow! What a chapter, am I right?! Gray lost it for a bit and went crazy in the beginning. We got to know a little bit more about his past and we even got to know his first name. So from now on unless in dialogue, I will be using his first name, unless it's Cael since he already knows his first name. Everyone else will continue to call him Gray or kid or playa, or in Lin's case, Wolfy.**

 **Alright, well I hope you enjoyed the chapter, please leave a review and let me know what you think.**


	7. Getting to know you

**Update 9/29/16-** Hello my fellow readers I have come bearing good news! I have just finished writing up the 8th chapter and have started typing it up as we speak. I wont give much about it but I will tell you, its a pretty good chapter with some pretty interesting thing going on. The chapter will actually be broken up into two parts as well. I don't really like breaking chapters into parts, but it would have taken me much longer to finish writing it up which would have taken me even longer to post the chapter and I didn't want to keep you, my fellow readers, waiting any longer than I already have. So, hopefully I will be done typing it up soon, so please keep an eye out for it.

* * *

Hey guys! I am so sorry for taking so long to post this chapter but writing it was a little tough and it became a really long chapter to write and type up. But it is a very good chapter nonetheless, one that I hope you all will like. Especially though Boss/Lin fans out there.

Anyways as a reminder for my fellow Monster of Stilwater readers, I will be taking a break from the story to work on a few other projects so it might be a while before I post another chapter. I promise I will not abandon the story, I will come back to it once I get my other stories going.

I will still keep updating about Monster of Stilwater on my profile, so head there if you want to be kept updated and if you guys have any questions feel free to PM me and I'll be sure to answer them.

Before we begin, I want to give a shout out to my friend, Mandalore the freedom, for the idea he pitched to me a while back. Thank you for the idea you gave me, I really appreciate it and hope you like what I did with your idea.

Alright, well without further ado here is the seventh chapter. I hope you all enjoy it.

Disclaimer- I own only my character and other original content.

The Monster of Stilwater (A reboot)

CH.7

Getting to know you

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

Alec felt like he had just lied down when he heard the pounding knock at his front door. He barely opened an eye to take a peek around his room. It was dimly lit, only because his dark curtains were covering his windows but the morning sun brought a bright streak of light into his room from the thin space where his curtains separate. Alec turned onto his other side facing towards the doorway and took a glance at his alarm clock on the bedside table to see that it was 1:37 PM. Not only did he oversleep, he was out for two days by the date on his clock.

The knocking persisted but Alec chose to ignore it. Whoever it was will get the hint and leave. As he rolled onto his stomach, Alec was relieved to notice his wounds no longer pained him but they still felt a little sore. He closed his eyes and fell back to sleep.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

Alec moaned in annoyance and grabbed the pillow his head was on and pulled it on top of his head to dull out the knocking. Just as quick as it came, it finally stopped to his relief. Alec relaxed his body onto the mattress and tried to get back to sleep.

DING DONG DING DONG DING DONG

"Ugh fine I give up?" he growled. Alec sat up at the edge of his bed, still feeling groggy as he stretched his arms and legs.

Alec got up from his bed and collected the cargo shorts and light blue button up from the floor and dressed into them as he walked to the front door. The shorts hung loose on his hips, just under the band of his grey boxer briefs and he only buttoned the three middle buttons of his shirt.

Because he closed all the curtains in his house, Alec didn't get a chance to adjust to the bright morning sunlight that blasted him when he opened the front door.

"Damn, what took you so long?" Alec's eyes were still adjusting to the light but he could recognize that voice anywhere.

"Lin?" Alec croaked quizzically. Sure enough he was able to make put her curvy slim figure standing a few feet from where he stood. He noticed that she wasn't wearing her usual attire. Instead of wearing her hair in a bun and chopsticks, she had the top half of her silky raven hair pulled back in a ponytail and let the rest hang loose down just past her slim shoulders and wore a pure white tank top that he couldn't help but notice accentuate her figure. Around her waist Lin tied a purple and black plaid button up that relaxed on her torn and worn looking skinny jeans and a pair of short black boots that she tied just above her ankles.

Alec had never seen her in her civvies before. All the other times they have hanged out at the church, which was very rarely, Lin would always come by in her Rollerz attire. He had to admit she looked really good in her casual wear. She looks good in anything really.

 _Whoa hey what am I thinking?_ Alec chastised himself as he brought himself back to the present.

"Lin, what are you doing here... and how do you know where I live?" He asked her, remembering that he never gave her his address in past conversations. Lin just looked at him with a smirk on her face when she answered him.

"I got your address from Johnny," She simply told him. Lin walked over to him and stopped just before stepping onto the concrete step in front of Alec's door.

"Can I come in?" She asked him. Lin didn't wait for a reply and walked closer. Alec stepped aside for her as she entered his home. Normally if anyone had done what Lin did, Alec would have tossed them out, literally. A creature like him wasn't fond of humans coming into his domain uninvited. But with Lin, it isn't like that. In fact, he couldn't help but smile at her rather forward behavior. It was one of the things he liked about her. Lin wasn't the type to ask or wait for permission on something. If she wanted something, Lin would take what she wanted when she wanted or do whatever she wanted to do.

Lin took a seat on the longer sofa that sat directly across from the TV while Alec took his spot on the recliner near the kitchen doorway.

"So, not that I don't enjoy your company, but why are you here?" Alec asked her.

"Dex told us that you had gotten pretty banged up from your job yesterday. I can see he wasn't joking." Lin took notice of the bandages that covered all of his bullet wounds and the bandage that was wrapped around his torso. The pain had lessened greatly overnight, thankfully.

Alec simply shrugged, "I feel much better today."

"Well, I wanted to make sure you were alright."

Alec looked at her, his eyebrow arched in curiosity at her said reason for visiting him. She didn't have to come all this way. A simple phone call would have sufficed surely. Something told him that she didn't do this for most people.

"Everyone's been calling you to check if you are okay but you haven't been answering your phone, which made everyone worry."

Alec took his phone from the right pocket of his shorts and turned on the screen. Sure enough there were a bunch of missed calls from Johnny Dex Troy Julius and even Lin herself as well as many texts from them asking if he was alright and to call them back.

"Shit, I'm really sorry Lin, I was really worn out and tired when I got home," Alec apologized to her. He combed his fingers through his brown mane of hair as he continued to apologize to her. He didn't seem to notice that Lin was gazing at his smooth bare chest and his chiseled abs revealed from the unbuttoned parts of his shirt. Her eyes scanned him top to bottom and again. His tattoo on the left side of his chest caught her attention. It looked like a tribal tattoo, she had seen many of the Rollerz sporting tribal tattoos with wolves or tigers thinking that it made them look cooler than they think they are when in fact it just made them look more like a douche bag. But for Alec, it looked really good on him. Lin didn't recognize the design though. She thought she had seen all the designs when she was with the Rollerz. Maybe it was an original.

Her gaze was caught by another marking on his chest. Lin saw a dark line of a scar that that ran a few inches long across the right side of his chest. If she didn't know any better, it looked an awful lot like a knife wound. As she took a closer look at him, she began to notice more scars faintly decorating his chest and stomach and his arms, though they were not as prominent as the one on his chest. They were really faint, like they were old, years old. One cluster of scars on the soft skin of his right forearm caught her attention. At first she thought they were just regular scars but as she got a closer look she realized that it was a brand burnt into his flesh: there were three letters branded on him: _**G.A.V**_ beside the Roman numeral for the number four. She heard of interesting ways to permanently mark your body but burning markings into your skin seemed a little too extreme.

Lin realized she had been checking Alec out longer than she should have and quickly averted her eyes away from his body and back to his face.

"I just went to sleep as soon as I got home," Alec finished his apology to her. He didn't seem to notice that Lin had been checking him out.

"You don't have to apologize to me," She caught the last of the apology. "I mean we are just glad that you are okay."

Alec nodded his head and gave her a crooked smile. Lin smiled back, she could feel her cheeks warm slightly and hoped they weren't flushed red.

Alec got up from his recliner and stretched his arms and legs a bit.

"Well since you came all this way on my behalf, the least I could do is offer you some lunch."

"Oh Gray you don't have to do that," Lin responded back waving her hands at Alec to stop him. It was in that brief moment of silence before Alec could protest her response, a loud growl rumbled from her stomach.

"Your lips say no, but your stomach says yes," Alec chuckled as he got up from the recliner. "I'll be right back. Do you want anything to drink?"

Yeah, I'll have a coffee if you got any."

Alec nodded before he turned around and walked to the kitchen, leaving Lin alone in his living room.

It was when he opened one of the cabinets to get the coffee when he realized something. He had no food to serve.

"On second thought." Alec started to say upon returning to the living room and passed Lin the warm steaming mug. "I just remembered that I haven't gone grocery shopping yet so how about I take you out to lunch instead?"

"Like a date?" She playfully teased. "Wolfy this is so sudden. I would have gotten better dressed if I'd known.

"Ha ha very funny," he laughed before taking a sip of his own blue mug. She noticed that his coffee seemed darker and thicker. It smelled weird too, she couldn't exactly pinpoint what it smelled exactly but it was a little familiar nonetheless.

"Just let me get ready and we'll head out."

Alec turned back around and walked to the hallway and closed one of the doors, Lin couldn't tell which one.

Lin took the time alone to look around the living room. It was small, much smaller than her living room but he made it work for him. The room was styled nicely, which surprised her by the way the outside of his house looked. She was surprised to see that he had good taste in style as she noticed Alec went with a modern chic look with his furniture and had his room color coordinated with white grey and black colored furniture. Whenever she's gone to a guy's home, it always looked messy and tacky and clearly had the appearance of a bachelor pad without a hint of a woman's touch. However Alec's home was oddly but refreshingly clean and neat. It even smelled nice too.

Lin, wanting to look around some more, got up from the plush steely grey sofa, and maybe find out a little bit more about Wolfy.

Wolfy, he has been a mystery for her since she had met him a few months before. Most guys are like an open book; they barely need to say anything, sometimes nothing at all before Lin could figure them out. But Wolfy, she could never seem to figure him out at all and for some reason, it really bugged her and she didn't know why.

Why do I care so much about that? She asked herself as she walked over to the large black wooden entertainment center on the other side of the room.

On the right side of the TV were a few shelves that held some of Alec's things.

On the top shelf, Alec kept his music collection. Now people have said that you can understand a person by knowing what kind of music they listen to, but it seems that Gray is exempt from that piece of logic as his taste in music varied in genre and artist.

He had a collection of 80's artists such as Duran Duran Modern English New Order and Run DMC next to his assortment of Classical music from Bach to Beethoven to Mozart that took up a row with along with his collection of bands such as The Who, Queen, The Smiths, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones that sat in front of a row of 40's big band swing music from Benny Goodman Perry Como and other artists.

Moving onto the second shelf, Lin found his collection of books that took up all the space in the roomy shelf. Like his music, Gray had a diverse selection of books and various authors. He had a lot of the classics such as 2,000 leagues under the sea, Moby Dick, Catcher in the Rye, To kill a mocking bird, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, Dracula and many others. One author he seemed to favor was Stephen King when she noticed he had a small collection of his books, that is until she further inspected his collection and found something that really took her by surprise: the entire collection of Jane Austen novels all lined up nicely in the back of the shelf.

Lin couldn't believe it, yet she also found it very funny. Wolfy, one of the Saints best killer, tied right next to Johnny himself, loved to read romantic novels and by the looks of the worn and creased bindings and the bent yellowed pages, he's read them a lot. Jane Eyre and Pride and Prejudice looked to be the most tattered of the collection.

Lin moved to the bottom shelf where only one item was placed in the empty compartment: A single black leather bound photo album propped up against the wooden walls of the bottom shelf.

Curiosity was getting the better of her. She wanted to look through the album. Wolfy has been this secretive figure, hardly ever talking about his family or himself unless pressed to do so, leaving her and the rest of the gang wondering who this young man really is.

When she looked at this heavy leather bound book, she felt that her questions about him could be answered once she opened this book.

She quickly glanced toward the hallway and listened as she heard the sound of water running vibrating through the walls letting her know that Alec is still getting ready and won't be out for some time, giving her the opportunity to take a peep into Alec's secretive past. Taking this as her chance, she took the book from the shelf.

The album didn't have just photos but other things as well, such as beautiful flowers pasted onto a page. Others had old movie ticket stubs. Really old movie stubs.

"Rebel without a cause," Lin read the movie title on the stub aloud as she wondered why he kept the ticket stub. It shouldn't have any real significance to him, the movie came out decades before he was even born.

Some of the other pages had old worn posters of punk and rock bands and flyers of when they were performing, some she knew really well, others she's never even heard of. One such flyer of an 80's band caught her attention the most, not because she heard of them because she has never heard of them in her life. It was the picture of the band that caught her eye, or more specifically, the front man that stood ahead of the rest, beside him, the only woman in the bad by the looks of it.

Lin knew it couldn't be possible, but the front man held a striking resemblance to Wolfy. Yes the picture was in black and white it was worn and faded but the guy looked so much like Wolfy.

 _He could be a family member_ , Lin thought, deducing that as the only explanation and continued on.

When she flipped through the first few pages, Lin had expected to find pics of Wolfy as a baby, or a child at least but there weren't any to be found. She thought it was odd. Who doesn't keep childhood pictures of themselves in their own photo album? The oldest pictures she could find were of him in high school.

Alec looked pretty much the same in his high school photos. Actually, he looks exactly the same as he does now. Lin remembered one of their few but enjoyable conversations, she found out he was twenty-one years old, making these photos of him to be at least three years old.

In the photos, Alec's hair was much shorter and the shadow of facial hair hadn't appeared along the lower part of his face but other than that, he still looked very much the same person he is now. Lin thought it was weird but didn't think on it anymore, deeming it as a matter of really good genes and continued to look amongst the other pictures.

In a few of the other photos, Lin saw Alec hanging out with two of his friends at what she is assuming is at school by the looks of the buildings in the background and the uniforms they wore.

In one such picture, Alec was sitting in between his two friends, arms wrapped around both of them as they lounged on the grass.

Alec's small group of friends consisted of one other boy. He looked broader than Alec but seemed to be of same height. His hair was of a similar style as Alec's but the color was a lighter shade of brown, like a sandy brown. What really caught her attention was that one side of his face was marked heavily of burn scars. However, the guy still looked attractive even with such a horrible scar marring his face.

The other friend was a pretty young woman, sitting rather too close to Alec.

The next photo had just Alec and that girl from the previous photo now sitting together on the ledge of their schools water fountain. Alec's arm was wrapped around her petite and curvy body from behind and resting his hand on her hip under her navy blue blazer as they both smiled happily for the camera. The girl relaxed her head on Alec's shoulder, her wavy curls of auburn hair hid most of Alec's big smile as he rested his chin on the top of her head. A few loose strands of the girl's hair fell beside her shiny hazel eyes on her heart shaped face.

Was this girl his girlfriend? No, he said he didn't have a girlfriend. She could be his ex. But then why would he still keep pictures of her if she is an ex? Why am I so worried whether she is his ex-girlfriend or not?

Lin was so engrossed in her thoughts that she didn't notice the looming figure of the man in question walking up behind her. Alec tapped her lightly on the shoulder making her jump in fright and nearly dropping the book in her hands.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," Alec apologized to her with a smile. He could hear her fast heart beat slowly going back to normal.

Damn, he's really quiet. I didn't even hear him walk in, she thought as she began to calm down. Lin noticed he looked more ready for the day than he had earlier. Alec seemed more refreshed than he did before. He brushed his mane of chocolate brown hair and changed into a black loose fitting long sleeve under a dark maroon cardigan sweater and a pair of dark brown jeans held up by his black leather belt.

He looked down at her arms crossed around her chest and noticed his photo album in her possession.

He turned his gaze back up and looked at her, his eyebrow arched in a quizzical manner. "Been poking around have we now?" He motioned towards the black leather bound book still in her hands

Lin looked down at the book in her hands and then looked up at the young man and saw his serious gaze staring at her, waiting for an explanation as to why she went through his stuff.

Alec could tell she was trying hard to hide her embarrassment at being caught looking through his things. There was no way he could get upset with her for looking through his album. Slowly his expression softened to one of a kinder look.

"Yeah, sorry I just got curious about you." Alec looked at her with a mild look of surprise at her answer. She was curious about him, she said. Another thing her liked about her was that she wasn't a beat around the bush type of girl, she was a straight forward woman.

"Why are you so curious about me?" He asked Lin simply.

"Because you are an interesting person." Lin responded back to Alec with a shrug of her shoulders.

"There is nothing interesting about me," He chuckled heartily.

It was Lin's turn to laugh as she pointed to the bookcase beside them. "To say the least you are a very interesting and complex guy. So, Jane Austen huh?"

"Hey, she's a great author and was a very lovely person...or so I have read." Alec quickly added the last part when Lin expression turned to a look of suspicion.

"So what picture are you on?" Alec moved in to get a closer look at the photo Lin was pointing to.

Lin enjoyed the smell of his cologne and the after shave he put on blending with his own natural musk. It was a perfect combination just for him.

The picture she was pointing at was one of him and his friends again posing beside the edge of a rocky cliff beside the ocean. Alec smiled as he remembered when that picture was taken. He and his friends decided to go on a hike along the Cliffside and explore the tide pools. He also remembered that right after that picture was taken a huge wave crashed beside the rocks and completely drenched them from head to toe.

"I've seen them in a lot of your pictures, are they your friends?" Lin asked him, breaking the silence.

"Yeah, they are my best friends," he answered her with a smile as he continued to look at the photo.

"That's Cael." He pointed to the guy on his right.

"And that's Melina." He pointed the girl on his left.

"Your friend, Melina," Lin began as she carefully thought of how to nonchalantly ask the question that had been bugging her since she saw a few certain pictures. "Has she always been just your friend?"

Alec looked up from the album. It was his turn to playfully tease her. "Are you asking if Melina and I were a couple?"

Lin nodded as she calmly waited for an answer, trying to hide any exposure of impatience.

"We did date for a while, but that was a long time ago. Way before I left New York."

Oh okay, so they were a thing, but just a long time ago. He only keeps pictures because they are still friends. Only friends now, Lin thought happily. Now there was another question she had to ask.

"So, that last girlfriend you had, did keep any pictures of her as well?"

That question caught him off guard.

"I actually do. Its only one picture though."

"Well then, let's see it then," Lin asked rather excitedly. Alec however, seemed a little uncertain to show her.

"Hmm, I don't know if I should show you."

"Oh come on Wolfy, she can't be that bad looking," Lin jested and Alec couldn't help but smile himself and nodded in compliance. It's not like I will get in trouble if I tell her now.

As he flipped through the pages to find the picture, Lin found it a bit odd that he only had one photo of his last girlfriend. Here he has dozens of photos of his Ex Melina, granted it is because they are best friends but still. Maybe there was a reason behind it and hopefully he will tell her.

Finally he stopped at a page and pointed to a figure in a photo. Her eyes widened at this sudden shocking revelation she was looking at.

"No way!" Lin gasped, her hands covering her grinning mouth. Her wide eyes moved from the photo to Alec. "Are you serious?" Alec nodded in response and Lin turned back to the picture and to the person that Alec still kept his finger pointed at. The picture was that of his schools swim team and his finger was pointed to a beautiful woman beside the team that stood as their coach. The woman's raven black hair was pulled back in a ponytail and her bangs swept to side to keep from hiding her blue sapphire eyes.

"Lin, I'd like you to meet Jenna, or Miss Lane, as I so called her when I was her student."

"Okay, you have to tell how this happened."

"It happened just like it does with anyone else," he casually shrugged. "It just had to be kept secret because of our teacher/student relationship."

"Is that why you two broke up?" she asked him.

"Yeah, we ended it before any real damage could be done." For some reason, Lin felt that he wasn't telling her the whole thing. She wanted to press a little further but she probably wouldn't get anything out of him so she moved on to something else when another thing caught her attention in the same picture.

"Wow, is that you right there?" Lin quickly pointed to the figure that is Alec standing near the middle of the large group of other swimmers and like the rest of the other boys in the Co-ed team, he wore nothing but a pair of dark navy speedos with a white stripe running on either side of his well-toned legs. She couldn't deny it, he had a very nice body without a single hint of flab on him. He definitely had muscles on him, she could see them clearly formed but he wasn't buff or brawny. No, Alec was built more like a runner or in this case, a swimmer. He was the tall and lean type of build. However what really caught her attention was his abs. Never had she seen such a perfect set of abs on anyone in her life. They looked like they could not only cut diamonds, but shatter them to pieces they looked so hard. She looked back up at him and could see he looked a little embarrassed. "I have to say, you look pretty damn fine in a speedo." Alec laughed as he looked back down to his old photos, hiding the slight crimson color rising in his cheeks.

Looking back at the book, she found another photo of Alec in his swim team attire, this time with his friend Cael. The two of them both wearing the team's throw-away pants and their light jackets as they held out their medals. As she looked at the picture at the smiling friends, she could stop looking at Alec's friend's scarred face.

"Your friend Cael, has… has he always….you know…had…" Lin tried to sound as considerate as she could, which she was finding to be really hard as she tended to be pretty tactless without a care in the world. If someone had a problem with her insensitiveness they could deal with her fist in their face. However, she likes Wolfy, and that's something that she could say about a lot of other people. She doesn't want him to think she is a total bitch with sensitivity issues, so she tried to be thoughtful with her words.

Alec instantly realized what Lin was trying to say. Many people that have seen his friend, whether in a picture or physically always asked him about that scar that took up half of Cael's face.

"No, he didn't always have that." Lin saw the smile on his face wane and his expression became darker, more somber.

"How did he get burned, if you don't mind me asking?"

Alec didn't answer right away. He seemed to be contemplating something, as if trying to find the right words to use.

"He uh… he was hurt a long time ago. Some guy pressed his face into a fire pit."

Lin stared at him in shock. "Oh my God! Was the guy ever caught?"

Alec dimly shook his head. "No, the guy wasn't caught. He's still out there."

"Damn, I hope that asshole is suffering for what he did."

"Believe me, he is," Alec muttered quietly under his breath as he remembered Cael's cries of agony as his skin burned away and heard his own voice laughing maniacally at the pain he was causing.

"Wolfy?" Alec looked up to see Lin's concern gaze upon him. He realized that he must have been silent for quite a bit to have her looking at him like that.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah I am," he responded shortly with a quick reassuring smile.

Lin could tell that the subject bothered him. _It must have been terrible for him, to have seen his friend so hurt._

"So what's the next picture you're on?" He asked her. Clearly he didn't want to discuss the topic any further. Lin pointed to another photo of him with two others, only they weren't his friends from the other pictures. They looked older, but only by a few years. At least that's what it looks like to Lin.

The picture was of Alec in a blue graduation cap and gown standing in between the two adults. On his left was a man that had a striking resemblance to Alec with only a few minor differences in their facial features and where Alec had his chocolate brown hair, the older man had short shiny jet black hair slicked black perfectly and where Alec had dazzling aqua green eyes, the man had a kind steely grey pair looking back at the camera.

She didn't know why, but for some reason, she felt like she had seen him somewhere before but couldn't place his face anywhere.

This man, though looked like Alec, clearly wasn't his father. _Wolfy said he died with his mother._ Then it clicked and she realized who it was.

"This must be your uncle."

Gray nodded as he took a sip of the coffee he made earlier. "Yup, that's my uncle Fabian.

As she kept looking at the man, it suddenly dawned on her where she has seen this man before. His picture is on practically every business magazine in every newsstand. She looked up at Alec in astonishment as she realized who the man is.

"You're uncle, I recognize him now… he's Fabian Lyken! He is the CEO of Lyken Industries! He's like, one of the richest men in the world!" Another realization came upon her as she figured another thing out.

"Wait…does…does that mean that….you…are you…are you rich?" She stared at him, wide eyed as she waited for his answer. Alec combed his fingers through his hair, the thing he does when he feels embarrassed, before answering her.

"Well…I….uh…I do get a share of the profits from my father's share that he left me."

"But you have a lot of money and you come from a rich family."

Alec just shrugged and gave Lin a halfhearted nod as a response.

"Damn Wolfy, and yet you decide to live here, in this shithole, when you can easily buy a penthouse suite."

"Hey, this isn't a shithole," he chuckled. "I worked hard to fix it to be a semi-shithole."

Lin laughed at his comeback. _Hot, kind, funny and rich, this guy is certainly one in a million._

"But seriously though, why are you working with a street gang for cash when you have enough money to live off of for the rest of your life?"

"Well, I like to keep myself busy, you know. I tend to get a bit restless if I don't have anything to do."

Lin moved closer to Alec, standing only inches away from him. "A rich guy who likes to earn his money through hard work. That is definitely something I haven't seen."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah, I have been working alongside those asshole Rollerz. Most of them are rich boys who haven't worked a hard day in their life. It's refreshing to see someone like you…a hard worker I mean."

Alec smiled when she finished. "Well, thank you, but if you could keep my 'status' a secret from the rest, I would appreciate it. I just don't want to draw attention to myself."

Lin made a lip zipping motion. "Don't worry, your secret is safe with me."

Moving on, Lin turned her attention to the other person beside Alec. The woman, seemed to have no resemblance whatsoever to Wolfy that made Lin wonder if she was related to him at all. The woman was indeed beautiful with wavy blonde hair and soft caring pair of green eyes, not the green color like Wolfy's but a lighter shade of green.

"Is she your aunt?" Lin pointed to the woman, thinking maybe the woman was married to his uncle.

Alec chuckled. "No, she's my mother, Cassandra."

 _Wait…what!_ "I thought you said your mother died?"

Alec realized the mistake he made. "Apologies, I am so used to calling her mother that I forget. She is actually my step mother."

"Oh, so your dad married twice then?"

Alec flipped the page to another, not making eye contact with Lin.

"No", he answered her shortly, a slight curt tone to his voice. Again the answer caught her by surprise.

"Oh, so your parents weren't…I mean…you're a—"

"A bastard born, yeah." Alec breathed a chuckle. He had a smile on his face, like the nature of his birth wasn't a big deal but Lin could see it in his eyes that it bothered him, even a little.

"Well, luckily in this day and age, there's nothing wrong with that," She replied kindly, placing a hand on his shoulder. He returned the gesture with a small generous smile.

 _If only she knew_ , he thought to himself.

"Not if you're in my family," Lin heard him mutter under his breath. Alec looked from the book and could tell from her gaze that Lin wanted him to explain. Normally, Alec didn't like telling people about his life or his family. This is honestly the most he has talked about his personal life to anyone. However for some reason, he felt comfortable telling Lin about himself. Well, maybe a little, but it was still more than anyone else knew.

"In my family," he began and Lin listened intently. "There are some people that think illegitimate children are blights on the family tree. An offense to the family name."

Lin could see Alec's forehead furrowed on his glowering face when he talked about his family. She now realized why he didn't exactly like to talk about his relatives.

" _That's terrible_ ," Lin thought sadly. _It must have been hard growing up in that type of environment, being treated badly for something that wasn't his fault._

Lin thought back to the graduation photo, and the woman that stood next to him, the one he called mother, and it got her thinking; if anyone had any cause to give him grief, it would be her.

"Was one of them your step mother?" Lin inquired darkly, anger beginning to swell as she thought of a little Wolfy crying as adults and kids shunned and ridiculed him when he couldn't even defend himself.

Alec noticed the bitterness in her tone as she spoke. He was surprised that she seemed to care. Lin didn't seem like the type to care about most people, especially those she met.

"No," Alec assured her with his crooked smile. "She was never like those other people. Cassandra took me in and raised me with her children and treated me as if I was her own son. I consider her as much my mother as mine own biological mother."

Lin's anger quickly diminished as she listened to how Alec spoke of his stepmother.

"Wow, she sounds like an amazing woman to take you in and raise you."

Alec took a longer look at the graduation photo again of him, his uncle and his stepmother, her kind gaze on him as she hugged him tightly. Sometimes it still surprised him that she cared for him that much. If anyone in his family had a grudge against him, it was her and yet she never spoke an ill word against him. Actually she has always protected him against those that have treated him unkindly, even those that were immediate family members.

"Yeah it wasn't all bad and not everybody was so cold towards me, only the distant and non-important members of the family. When I got older, I stopped caring about what people thought of me and decided that I wasn't going to make a name for myself and not be known as the family's bastard child."

Lin lips formed a smile. She admired his optimism and how it seemed to help him get through living with cold family members.

Lin wanted to know more about Gray and he seemed to have notice her wanting to know more as well. Should he tell her more? Was it wise of him to answer these questions that might put Lin in harm's way one day? The reason he moved away was to lay low after what happened in New York. There are people, bad people that want him dead looking for him. Hell for all he knew they probably already found him and are just waiting for the perfect moment to strike. No, if they already knew where he is, Gray would have known.

"Your uncle and stepmother don't seem like those types of people. They seem really nice, like they really care about you."

"They are," Gray responded back to her. He sighed and moved to sit on the sofa. Lin followed suit and sat next to him. On the page he was on was a picture of him tightly hugging his stepmother. Her arms wrapped themselves around his own as Gray gave her a kiss on the cheek. The photo next to that one had Gray and his uncle sitting on a bench, Gray's uncle held him by the shoulder both of them smiled warmly for the picture.

"My uncle adopted me after my parents passed away and Cassandra has always been like a second mother to me." Lin saw how soft and kind his expression became as he talked about the grownups that willingly took him in. Lin never even met the woman that is Alec's stepmother but she already felt some respect to her. Not many women would be so willing to raise their spouses' child out of wedlock and care for them like their own.

Alec flipped the page to another set of photos. One photo in particular caught her attention; the photo is old by the looks it. Lin looked down at the time stamp on the bottom right hand corner where the photo was revealed to have been taken in 1953. The photo was of a young looking couple sitting on a motorcycle. The young man was wearing a dark leather jacket and a checkered button up with the collar popped out slightly and his hair greased back with a leather biker cap tilted to the side. This man had a striking resemblance to Alec. In every way in fact. The way he looked, the way he smiled, the way he held himself, everything was just like how Alec did. The woman sitting on the bike behind the Gray look alike was a gorgeous looking woman with black hair pulled back in a tight ponytail. Her eyes had to be blue or green, something light but Lin couldn't tell because the photo was in black and white. The woman's' head rested on the young man's shoulder and her arms wrapped around his waist with her hands intertwining at his stomach as she smiled with him for the camera. By the looks of the couple, how happy they seemed to be in the photo, Lin could tell they were really in love.

"These two must be your grandparents?" Lin assumed as she tilted the album towards him, pointing to the old photo.

"Yeah...they are my grandparents," he answered her halfheartedly.

"I can't believe how much you resemble your grandfather in this photo. I mean I know that many relatives often have the same features but damn, it's like looking at a clone."

"Really? You think so?" He asked her. _Of course we would look alike,_ Alec chuckled at the thought. He leaned over to take a closer look. It has been a long time since he really took a look at the old photo. Alec actually has been avoiding it. Looking at this photo brought back many memories, good but mostly bad ones too.

"They really look like they are in love." Alec kept his gaze on the old yellowing photo before him. He remembered when that photo was taken as if it was yesterday. It was one of those rare perfect days where it felt like nothing could go wrong. It was too bad that it couldn't last.

 _Yeah, we were._ "Yeah, they were." Alec tried to hide it but Lin could hear the tinge of sadness in his calm tone of voice. It made her wonder if his grandparents passed away. Did one of them pass away? Or both of them? Was he really close to them? Lin had many questions to ask of this truly mysterious man standing beside her. She wanted to ask him more but Alec suddenly closed the album away and placed it back on its shelf. Lin thought those were his reasons for putting the book back but it was something else that made him put it away.

Alec didn't like to remember the past, especially when it involved her, the woman smiling so brightly in the photo.

"We should get going before the lunch time traffic gets too crazy out there," Alec used as his explanation with a kind smile.

When Gray turned around facing Lin, he saw her look of discontent. He knew she wanted to know more about him, but he couldn't let her and he knows Lin is getting frustrated about it.

"Yeah, we better get going." Lin answered clearly trying to hide her displeasure as she got up from the sofa. She straightened her buttoned up around her waist as she walked over to the front door with Alec following suit.

The two of them walked out to the cool outside air where the sun shined brightly over them. Lin made her way halfway to her car when she realized Wolfy wasn't following her. Quickly turning back, she saw him over by his garage and lifting the large white metal door.

"What are you doing?" Lin called out as she began walking back to towards the house. Before she could enter the garage Alec was already exiting the garage with his shiny black Estrada rolling beside him as he guided the bike out.

"Well, I thought since it's a nice day out, we'd take my bike out instead."

Lin didn't seemed as enthused about the idea as Alec thought she would have been. Actually, she looked warier of the vehicle beside him.

"Er, why don't we just take my car," Lin offered, pointing to her Voxel parked on the street in front. "I'll drive, just tell me where to go."

"No its fine, I can take us." Alec swung his right leg over the bike and sat down on the black leather seat. He looked up after revving the engine when he noticed Lin didn't take the seat behind him and found her still standing in the driveway. "Are you okay?"

"Oh yeah, I'm fine. It's—uh—It's just that I—"Lin stammered to a stop.

That's when it dawned on him.

"Wait…are you afraid to ride a motorcycle?"

 _Yes._ "What? Psh no, I'm not afraid of these things." Lin awkwardly said as she patted the chrome handlebars. "I just prefer to ride in something with four wheels rather than two."

Alec chuckled. "Well, this is just like riding a bicycle."

 _That's exactly the problem,_ Lin thought as she stood there, memories flashing of herself as a kid not being able to balance herself on her bike and falling, an embarrassed look on her face began to form as she tapped her fingers along the handlebars.

"Yeah, well, I…haven't exactly….had…" Her stammering became lower and more incoherent with each word until Alec couldn't even here the last few words.

"Sorry, I didn't catch that last part."

Lin sighed a deep breathe before repeating herself. "I've never really got the hang of…riding a two wheeler, is all."

Her response caught him off guard. He expected maybe she had a bad experience on a motorbike or just preferred cars.

Lin expected him to laugh. _Why wouldn't he? I mean, who's afraid to ride a bike?_

However, Alec didn't laugh at her. He did smile, not in a mocking way, but his kind crooked smile as he held out his hand for her.

"Come on, it'll be fine with me steering the bike."

Seeing him sitting on the bike, Lin was quickly reminded of the old photograph of his grandparents. He looked so much like his grandfather right now as he sat on the motorcycle, smiling just like his grandfather did in the picture.

Quickly snapping out of her thoughts, she took Alec's outstretched hand and carefully swung her leg around to the other side and situated herself on the seat behind Alec.

Alec felt her strong yet slender arms wrap themselves around his body. Once he got the okay that she was ready, he revved the engine a couple of times and slowly drove the motorbike onto the street.

Once he began picking up more speed, Alec could feel Lin's arm tighten around his torso and her body pressed more onto his back. Habitually he would be racing down these streets, zipping past the cars and avoiding the traffic signals and be a regular speed demon going down the roads, however Alec could tell she was nervous being on the bike, so he made sure to be careful when riding through the streets. It might have been too slow for his pace but he enjoyed it nonetheless; feeling the wind pass him more smoothly as opposed to it whipping his face and taking in more of the cities scenery as he drove past. Not to mention having a girl sitting right behind him with her arms wrapped around him was a nice feeling as well, he had to admit.

By the time they got off the freeway, Alec could feel Lin's arm's loosen a bit around his torso. Taking a quick glance back he saw that she didn't look so nervous, in fact he could see a hint of a smile forming on her lips as she gazed at the passing scenery around them. Moving his left hand from the handlebar, he lowered it to her clasped hands resting on his stomach. Lin didn't seem to mind, so he kept it there for the rest of the ride.

After twenty minutes of driving, Alec finally stopped the bike in front of a restaurant. Lin looked over at the building and read the name of the restaurant: Lá Misión.

"I hope you like Mexican food," Alec smiled as he led the way into the restaurant.

The aroma of the restaurant was making Lin's mouth water, it smelled so good. She was a big fan of Mexican food and yet she never heard of this place, granted she didn't exactly come into the Barrio district as it was home to the Carnales.

Everything on the menu looked delicious to her but it was the wet burritos that she ordered along with a beer. Alec ordered the same thing as well.

"How did you find this place?" Lin inquired as they took their seats in a booth. She twiddled with her bottle as she waited for Alec to answer her.

"I found it a few weeks back after I cleared out a dust lab for Dex. I was hungry and this place smelled really good so I came in. I fell in love with this place after I tried their steak fajitas."

The waitress soon came by with their orders. Alec waited and watched as Lin took a bite into the huge burrito garnished with lettuce and slathered with a spicy red sauce in top.

Lin was in awe. The burrito was by far, the best she had ever tasted. The sauce, the meat even the tortilla itself was perfect.

"Oh my God," She smiled after swallowing the food. "This is the best burrito I've ever had!"

Alec chuckled as he watched her take another bite before he started to dig in himself. Lin didn't eat like most women did, as if they didn't like being seen eating and chewing their food carefully. No, Lin ate the meal with such fervor, piling her fork with food and stuffing it into her mouth.

It annoyed him terribly when women barely ate their food when they were clearly starving.

 _I'll definitely have to bring her back her again then,_ he thought happily as he took another bite of his own burrito. _Wait, did I say next time? What am I thinking!_

So tell me," Lin spoke up after a few minutes passed of content silence between the two as they ate their meals. "What did you do before joining the gangbanging occupation?"

The question caught him off guard. He wasn't expecting to be asked more questions about himself. Alec thought what he told her earlier was enough.

"I thought we already talked enough about me."

"Oh no, I've only scratched the surface with you, " Lin chuckled before taking a sip of her beer as a smile slinked behind the dark beer bottle pressed against her lips. "Now spill."

 _Well, it's nothing too personal at least. It couldn't hurt to tell her._

"Well, before I joined up with you guys, I worked at T' N' Ay —"

Lin suddenly choked on her beer when she heard his reply.

"You're kidding right?" She laughed once she was able to speak after clearing her throat. "You worked at a strip club? You're a stripper?"

Lin couldn't believe it. She did admit, he does have the body and looks to be successful in that type of occupation. Yet Wolfy didn't seem like the stripping type. He was too reserved to be the type to dance on stage as he took off his clothes.

"No, I wasn't a stripper," he chortled at her assumption. "I was just the busboy."

"Oh, okay." Lin retorted. She had to admit she was a little disappointed that he wasn't a stripper. _'I wouldn't mind seeing that.'_

"So you never got on stage and did a little dance?"

There was a moment of silence as Lin waited for Wolfy to say no. Her eyes brightened in glee when she saw the embarrassed look on his face. _Holy shit!_ was all she kept repeating in her mind.

"Come on spit it out!"

"Haha alright alright." He started, raking his fingers through his chocolate brown locks. "I…I only did it once. The owner made it as part of my interview. It was ladies night at the club and he told me to dance for a bachelorette party the club was hosting."

"No way, that is way too funny," Lin laughed with Alec. "Did you make any money?"

"Oh yeah! I made $80 just when I took off my shirt and nearly $200 when I took off my pants," Alec told Lin as he remembered the evening.

'I wouldn't doubt it,' Lin thought, remembering the photo of him in his speedo, how fit he looked.

"So were you still working there when you joined up with us?"

"Oh no, I was sort of… fired from the club a few weeks before I met Julius and Troy."

The news that he was fired stunned Lin. He didn't seem like the type to get fired and from a busboy job too? _How do you get fired from a busboy job?_

"Why were you fired?" Lin asked, her inquisitive nature getting the better of her.

"Well, I was fired by the club owner after I got into a… little altercation with him."

"Altercation?" The reason surprised her. An altercation? He didn't seem like the type to go against authority. Wolfy always did what Julius told him to do with no question or second thoughts. Yet he got into a fight and with his former boss no less. "Wolfy you're surprising me more and more. I didn't think you had it in you to fight with your superiors. So what was the reason?"

"I broke his hand when he kept treating the girls like property that he could do whatever he wanted with them. I couldn't take it anymore but I never meant for it to escalate like that."

Lin was astonished at what she heard. Not about him hurting his former boss. She has seen the guy before and he was a total scumbag. What she was astonished at was that Wolfy risked his job for a bunch of girls that he probably barely knew. _Chivalrous too. Just when I thought it was dead, it turns out to be right here in front of me._

"That was very kind of you," Lin told him kindly.

Alec gave her a warm smile for the compliment she gave him. "Thanks."

"So did you just live off your money until you joined us or did you get another job?" Lin asked after finishing the last of her burrito.

"Oh no, I got a job a few days later," Alec answered after downing the last of his beer. "I still work there."

"Oh yeah? Where do you work?"

"I work over at Glitz. Do you know it?"

"Oh, that dance club in the suburbs." Lin knew that place really well as it was a hangout for the Rollerz. Lin herself hasn't been inside much, not lately since she became a recruit for the gang. Trying to climb up the ranks at such a rapid pace took a lot of time and effort which gave her very little down time to hang out and party. Not that she wanted to party with them. The Rollerz were by far the worst people she has ever met. The guys were rich, obnoxious privileged assholes and the girls were snobby stuck up bitches. It was no wonder the other gangs want to get rid of these pricks over each other. If there is one thing the other gangs can agree on, it's that they hate the Rollerz with a passion.

"I've been there a few times. Are you bussing over their now?"

"No…not exactly," Alec began. Again, he raked his fingers through his mane of hair as a nervous smile appeared on his lips. "I'm a…I'm a performer. I'm in a band that plays there."

Lin stared at him, incredulous and wide eyed at what he told her. Just when she thought she knew him, Wolfy again surprises her. It surprised her because he has always been so stoic and reserved, being in the spotlight with a bunch of eyes on him didn't seem like something he'd do. "For real? You're a musician? How did you go from bussing tables to performing on stage?"

"Don't sound so shocked now," he chuckled with his natural crooked smile. "My neighbor Treiger, he's heard me play and told me that some of his college buddies are in a band and lost a guitarist and needed a replacement for an upcoming gig. It was supposed to be a onetime thing, but… I enjoyed it…a lot."

Lin listened intently as Alec told her of the band. They were just a small time band that didn't perform original music but covered popular music instead, most of it was from the 70's and 80's and 90's era with some more contemporary here and there. That's where they got they got the name The Throwback's.

"I know it's a bit dorky," Alec quickly added as he saw the big smile on Lin's face, assuming that was the cause of her smile. Unbeknownst to him, that wasn't the reason at all. She enjoyed listening to him at how excited he was about performing.

"No I don't. I think that is really cool," she stated kindly and truthfully. "This is something I have to see so you better tell me the next time you perform."

"Will do," he replied back with his roguish crooked smile of his.

 _Damn that smile,_ was all Lin thought as she let out a deep exhale of breath.

"So we've been talking about me for a while, I'm starting to feel like I'm being a narcissist or something," Alec chuckled as he leaned back into the cushion of the booth seat. "Tell me about yourself Lin."

It was Lin's turn feel off guard now by the sudden request. It's been a while since she's talked about her family and herself. Not even the Saints, with the exception of Gat and Julius, know much about her. Her early life wasn't exactly a topic she liked to talk about and avoided it at all cost.

However, with Wolfy here, she felt comfortable enough to tell him. It was strange, she's only known him a couple months, tops, and even then she's only seen him a few days out of those two months. Nevertheless for some reason, Wolfy made her feel comfortable to be around. She felt she was able to talk with him about things of a personal nature but that didn't mean she was going to give herself away so easily.

"Alright, I'll tell you a bit about me," Lin began with a mischievous smile that Alec couldn't help but feel a little nervous. "But you have to tell me more about yourself too. We'll take turns."

Alec sighed and exhaled deeply. Did he really want to tell her more? _'She already knows more about me than anyone in this city. Well, besides Cael._

"I thought I was already telling you all about me?" He questioned her.

"I know," She responded smugly. "But you are trying to avoid it by asking me about myself. I'm just making sure you don't think it is over."

 _Oh, she's good!_ Alec thought to himself. Finally making his decision, he reluctantly nodded and Lin beamed a big smile.

"Okay, ask me your first question."

"Alright, first question," Alec quickly thought up something to ask. "Were you born here in Stilwater?"

"No, I was born in Beijing and lived there until I was six years old before moving to the states," Lin told him.

"Ah, a foreigner just like me," Alec smirked teasingly as Lin giggled in response. "It's like we're kindred spirits."

"My turn." Lin rubbed her hands together as if she had some devious plan up her sleeves. "Tell me about your siblings. You mentioned them earlier."

"Oh yeah." Alec remembered quickly mentioning them to her at his house earlier. "Well, I have a sister and brother named Aria and Quentin, they're my older half-siblings."

"Aw you're the baby in the family!" Lin squealed teasingly. She reached over and pinched his reddening cheeks as that embarrassed smile returned to his face. "Do you get along with them?"

"Uh uh," Alec gave her a cheeky grin. "The rules were that we can only ask one question per turn."

Lin waved his statement off. "This is just the second half of my first question."

Alec could have argued it but instead he rolled his eyes and nodded in agreement before answering.

"My sister and have always got along really well. I guess with her being the eldest, she developed this motherly complex towards Quentin and me. Now as for my brother…"

Alec hesitated to continue for a moment or two before speaking up again.

"…Well my brother and I didn't exactly get along so well."

Lin didn't have to think hard on why that was. Wolfy's and expression said it all. The look on his face was the same one when he talked about his parents. "It was because you were illegitimate wasn't it?"

Alec nodded weakly. "Yeah he didn't like the idea that the walking talking reminder of our father's indiscretion, so I was called, was living under the same roof as him and the rest of the family."

"That's not right," Lin replied darkly. "It wasn't your fault for how you were born."

Alec waved it off with a kind smile. "It's alright, Like I said before, it doesn't bother me anymore."

Lin smiled brightly at him. She admired how he didn't care what people thought of him anymore, no matter how terrible they were to him.

"So what about you?" Alec asked her. "Do you have any siblings of your own?"

Alec saw the cheerful expression on Lin's face change almost instantaneously. Her smile faltered and she lowered her gaze from his own.

"Maybe I asked the wrong question?" He asked her gently.

"Oh no, you didn't," she quickly answered back. "I had an older brother, named Chan."

' _Had?'_ The past tense word kept ringing in his head. Deciding it was probably best not to delve on it, Alec chose to pretend that he didn't hear it.

"Oh that's cool. Does he live in the city?"

"No," Lin answered, her voice sullen. "He passed away a long time ago."

There it was, the answer he had assumed. "Oh Lin, I'm sorry," Alec sincerely apologized to her. He could see a hint of sadness in her gaze that was making him feel terrible for bringing up the subject. "If…if you don't want to talk about your brother, I completely understand."

"No no it's fine!" She quickly responded with a reassuring smile to show that she was alright. "I just haven't talked about him in a long time, is all."

Alec nodded and Lin began.

"Chan was three years older than me, and he was my best friend." Her face lit up again as she talked about her brother and told him it was Chan that began her passion for cars and racing.

"Our parents were very strict on us. They wanted nothing short of perfection when it came to our schoolwork, you know. It didn't surprise me when I found out Chan was doing something as rebellious like racing cars behind their backs. He was really good at it too."

"Did your parents ever find out?"

"About his racing? No, not until after he died." A small smile formed on her full pink lips. "But, I remember an argument he had with our parents when he told them that he wasn't going to College so he could open a garage instead. My parents practically disowned him."

A light laugh escaped Lin's smiling lips and Alec chuckled with her. When they were finished there was silence between them until Alec spoke again after taking a sip of his half-filled bottle.

"How did he…how did your brother pass away? If you don't mind me asking?" Alec asked her gently, sensing that it was still a sensitive subject for her.

"He was racing," She began. "He was such a good racer that he earned a famous reputation in the racing community…as well as opponents too." Lin paused as she called out for a waitress to get her another beer. _Guess this is a touchier subject than I thought._

"Lin—" he started quietly only to be unknowingly interrupted by Lin.

"There was this one guy named Griff. He was this asshole driver that raced dirty just to win, but my brother was the only one that he couldn't beat and it pissed him off every time." Lin took her new bottle of beer and downed a hearty gulp before continuing. Alec leaned in closer, listening intently.

"One day, Griff challenged my brother, who accepted right away, to race down the mountain road, like any other race they had done before. As usual, Chan was in the lead, it looked like a sure win for him."

Lin took a brief pause before continuing again.

"About halfway down the mountain, Chan and Griff were neck and neck when they made a sharp turn…Griff….Griff deliberately sideswiped my brother's car, making Chan lose control of his car and drove off the side of the mountain."

"I saw everything; Griff hitting my brother's car, Chan losing control and driving off the mountainside and crash onto the ground… seeing him after… in his car…"

"Oh man Lin, that's…that's terrible." He truly felt sorry for her. To lose someone close in such a horrible way and to witness it at such a young age as well, it must have been hard to get over it.

Alec reached over and took her small hand in his and gently gave it a squeeze. Lin, who hadn't been looking at Alec while she talked finally raised her head from the half empty bottle when she felt his warm touch.

His hand completely covered her own. His palm and fingers felt coarse and strong, like that of a person who has spent years doing manual labor, something that she didn't expect from someone born into wealth and privilege. Then again, she remembered what Wolfy said about working to earn his money instead of living off his family's wealth.

Lin turned her hand over in Alec's gentle grasp so now she was holding onto his hand. The coarseness of his palm and fingers gently rubbing her soft hand didn't feel too rough against her touch. In fact, it felt really nice soothing even comforting to her.

Looking up into his kind beautiful aqua green eyes gazing caringly back at her, Lin's heart skipped a beat as her fair cheeks flushed red. It was a rare thing for Lin to blush just from a man smiling at her.

Clearing her throat, Lin continued with her story.

"After my brother's funeral, my parents became unbearable to live with. When they weren't completely ignoring me they were yelling at me, blaming me for Chan's death because I was there when it happened. Sometimes my father went as far as to hit me."

Alec couldn't believe that her parents could be so cruel to her. How her father could physically harm her. It made him angry just thinking about it.

Slowly and as calm as he could, Alec took deep breaths to control his strong emotions. _It wouldn't be a good thing if I lost my temper here and now._

"Please tell me you didn't stay there too long," Alec asked her as calmly as he cold to hide the anger swelling in his body.

Lin gave him a small smile. "Hell yeah I did. When I was fourteen, I left as soon as I could. I packed a duffel bag and took a bus all the way to Stilwater, have been here ever since."

"Wow!" Alec was really impressed that a young teenage Lin managed to make it on her own in this tough city. _Well, it is Lin after all. Of course she could survive this city on her own._ Alec's regard grew for Lin more and more as he learned more new things about her.

"Fourteen years old and living in Stilwater on your own. How did you do it?"

"I had help," Lin simply answered. "Johnny let me crash at his place until I could get a place of my own."

"Really? That was nice of him," Alec chuckled along with Lin. Gat didn't really seem like the type to be so caring of others. "You've known Gat for a long time then?"

"Yeah, he's kinda sorta family."

Alec's brow raised in surprise at this tidbit of info. "I had no idea that you and Gat were family."

"Well, like I said, were sorta related. He's my aunt's husband's brother in law's nephew. We met a few times at family get together and we have been friends since. He's like…been another big brother to me you know, protecting me and stuff. He's the one that taught me to fight and shoot guns and shit."

"Wow, Gat's a pretty big softie." Alec smiled at the thought of THE Johnny Gat being a caring guy like that.

"Yeah I know he puts up a tough hard ass personality but once you get to know him, he is actually a pretty cool guy and fiercely loyal to his friends."

Alec could actually believe that. He remembered the first time he met the guy. To Gat. He was an unknown stranger that could have possibly been an infiltrator. As extreme as it was call him out and nearly get pummeled by half of the gang, Alec understood that it was a test of loyalty as well as strength. Alec did notice Gat has been nicer to him lately.

A half hour passed with the two of them just talking and joking around as they chowed down on an order of fried ice cream. Alec thought it was great, just being here in this cramped little hole in the wall restaurant with Lin, it's been the best time he's had since being in this city. Being with her, it's made Alec feel relaxed. At ease, like he could be more like himself around her.

The mood however, had suddenly changed when the bell atop the front door rang as a group of men clad in baggy red t-shirts and tanks that Alec immediately recognized as thugs from the Carnales. _Guess they didn't get the memo that this was no longer their turf._ Alec took this district himself for the Saints just a couple weeks ago.

The three men were loud and obnoxious as they ordered their food. Some of the patrons looked up in annoyance at the group while other just kept their heads to their plates, hoping just to be left alone. When a family of four made their way to the exit, the Carnales thugs harassed them, jokingly asking the young boy if he wanted to join them and making obscene jokes at the mother. When the husband tried to stand up to them one of the thugs lifted his red tank where he kept the pistol snug on his waistband and the family hurried out of the restaurant.

After ordering their food, the Carnales thugs strutted over to find a table.

Alec quickly lowered his head, not out of fear but he didn't want to have any attention drawn to himself.

"What are you doing?" She whispered her question to him. Her question was quickly answered when she saw the small group walking over and took a seat at the table beside theirs.

"I thought you cleared this area of these guys!" Lin hastily whispered to Alec.

"I did." Alec whispered back. "These guys must not have gotten the memo."

Not wanting to draw attention to themselves, Alec and Lin stayed put and kept quit as they overheard the loud group talking about some of the recent hits they've been plagued with by who they are calling 'some unknown Saint'. Alec couldn't help but smile. Little did they know, that unknown Saint was sitting five feet away from them.

"Hey did you hear what happened a couple days ago over by the docks?" one of the guys named Antonio asked the other two.

"No," the others responded in unison.

"Man, the dust lab over there was attacked!"

"En serio?" **(Are you serious?")** The other guy named Gordo yelled. He slammed his fist on the wooden table, the act startling the remaining patrons. "That was our last fuckin' dust lab! How the fuck did it get taken out!"

"How the fuck do you think perro? It was those fuckin' Saints, again!"

"It's one Saint." The third guy named Rico corrected his friend as he angrily swiped his beer from the waitress' hand when she passed the cold bottles around.

"Que?"

Rico took a swig of his and a bite of his asada tacos before answering his friends. "It was one Saint that took out our last dust lab. Hector and Angelo are furioso about it. Angelo, mierda loco **(the crazy fuck)** capped the two survivors that told him what happened."

"Pssh, you're lying man." Gordo waved off his friend's statement. "How can one bitch Saint take down all our dust labs? Es imposible. Anyways, how do you know it's only one of those fuckers? You weren't there?"

"No but I heard it from Beto, who was there. When I visited him in the hospital, he told me it was one guy."

Antonio and Gordo burst out in laughter when they heard Rico's source.

"Beto? You heard it from Beto!" Antonio managed to say in between laughs. His hands held onto his side as he continued to laugh. "That cabron **(fucker)** is drunk all the time! And when he isn't drinking, he's sniffing the angel dust and getting high as fuckin' kite! Now I know it's not true."

"No serio perro!" **(No seriously dog!)** Rico spoke up. "My boy Franky, he was working in the dust lab over in the factories district when it was attacked. When he woke up from his coma, he told me that it was only one Saint that came in and attacked them."

"Shit man, Franky don't lie. That's one guy you can count on to tell the truth."

 _Oh shit!_ Alec shouted in his head. _What if that guy saw me and what I did? I thought I was careful with my disguise. He could've told the entire gang what I look like!_

"But Franky couldn't see what the puto **(bitch)** looked like. Alec sighed in relief. His disguise wasn't compromised. "All Franky told us was that he wore a purple bandana and a black beanie to cover his face or something."

Rico adjusted himself in his seat, his face becoming more serious when he continued.

"Franky told me he was fast…really fast." The others guys took notice of the grim look on their friends face as he spoke of this 'unknown Saint' and listened closely. "He told me that the guy was like a one man army or some shit. Said the fucker killed ten of our boys, fully armed, with nothing but a lead pipe. A FUCKIN' LEAD PIPE! Against ten men with automatic rifles!"

Gordo whistled in amazement. "Shit man, that's way too crazy."

Antonio nodded in agreement. "I wouldn't believe it if it didn't come from Franky."

"That's not all…Franky said that fucker Saint couldn't be killed."

"Que?" Antonio chuckled in response. "What are you talking about?"

Gordo chimed in as well. "Si, What do you mean he can't be killed?"

"Franky told me that the Saint was shot at. Bullets hit him but they didn't stop him one bit. And the way he fought…he said the Saint was like a wild animal. He said the guy jumped high and far to get to our guys."

That relief Alec had felt earlier quickly washed away as he saw the shocked look on Lin's face as she listened to what he hoped everyone listening, especially Lin, considered nothing more than a tall tale.

"Psh, come on shut up perro," Rico nervously laughed, waving off what his friend told them. "Franky was probably freakin' out or somethin' and wasn't thinkin' straight. There's just no way that can be true!"

Alec sighed in relief. _They don't believe him._ He quickly turned back to Lin. She still held that shocked look of belief. _Well it looks like I'm gonna have to come up with something to tell her._

Not wanting to hear anymore, Alec motioned for the both of them to head for the exit.

As soon as they got up, the three Carnales thugs looked up from their table and eyed the two as they made their way to the main door.

"Mira **(look)** , checkout the ass on that chica." Alec overheard Rico mutter to his friends. The other two nodded as they checked out Lin some more.

"She got some nice tits too," Gordo smirked a cocky grin as he nudged Antonio with his elbow.

"Heh heh no kidding," Antonio grinned creepily, licking his lips. "I'd definitely tap that."

Alec was glad that Lin couldn't hear this or she would have walked over and kicked their ass but he wasn't glad that he could hear them. That anger of his was swelling up as he listened to those asshole make their comments about his friend.

Alec turned to the three men. His eyes glaring at them. For a moment, he made them feel nervous but when the initial feeling waned away, they became their detestable self again.

Alec turned back to the open doorway to exit when one of them called him out.

"Yo Cabron, ¿Por qué no vamos a tomar esa puta de sus manos **(Why don't you let us take that bitch off your hands?)** Antonio yelled across the restaurant. "Usted puede tener su espalda cuando he terminado. Pero yo no creo que ella va a volver una vez que ella ve lo que tengo." **(You can have her back when I'm done. But I don't think she will go back once she sees what I got.)**

Alec calmly stood in place as he listened to the group laughing at him.

"Mira este culo allí de pie. Apuesto a que ni siquiera entienden lo que estoy diciendo." **(Look at this asshole just standing there. I bet he doesn't even understand what I'm saying.)** Antonio sneered at Alec.

Alec didn't get angry at them. Instead, he smiled at the laughing group. Outside Lin realized that Alec wasn't beside her and turned back to the restaurant where she could hear the conversation going on.

"Esa mujer está fuera de tu alcance," **(This woman is way out of reach for you)**. Alec kindly told him. He shocked the group and even Lin with the fact that he could not only understand Spanish but that he could speak it as well. "Que haya un gran ego, ¿Sabes lo que dicen de los hombres con grandes egos?" **(You have a big ego. You know what they say about men with big egos?)** Alec lifted his right hand and wiggled his pinky finger at Antonio.

Antonio shot up from his seat, knocking the wooden chair to the ground, and stood up glaring at Alec. He started shouting cusswords at him but Alec ignored them all and walked out of the restaurant before anything could get out of hand. Not that he couldn't handle those assholes but he didn't want to take the chance of revealing what he has been trying to hide from Lin. From everyone else.

"I didn't know you spoke Spanish," Lin said to him as they walked toward his Estrada.

"Well I was born in Spain," Alec grinned arrogantly. "Spanish is my mother tongue."

Lin playfully punched him in the arm. "All right all right Mister Smart ass. Let's get out of here before those asshole's grow a pair and decide to come after us."

Alec chuckled as he took his seat on the glistening black bike. Once he made himself comfortable on his bike, Alec held his hand out for Lin, like he did for her earlier.

With a sweet smile, the first sweet smile Alec had seen on her face, Lin took his hand and sat behind him.

Lin wrapped her arms around his lean torso. Alec felt her body lean into his back, not out of fear of the motorbike. No, there was no tenseness he could feel from her body. In fact, Lin seemed to be more relaxed against him than she was earlier. However, that wasn't what caught him by surprise, but when she rested her head on his shoulder.

He inhaled her scent encircling his head and going into his nose and mouth. It was such an intoxicating scent she had of apples and lilies mingling together. _God does she smell so good._

"Wolfy!" Alec heard Lin call out to him. He didn't realize he had been sitting there, unmoving. "Aren't we gonna head out?"

"Oh right, sorry." Alec revved the engine to life and drove it down the street, merging into the traffic around them.

The ride back to the Row didn't take as long, much to Alec's relief. He never did like being stuck in traffic.

As Alec drove the bike up the driveway, he noticed the sleek silver Raycaster that he immediately recognized parked behind Lin's Voxel. Sure enough to his surprise, Alec saw his best friend Cael sitting on one of the lawnchairs.

"Hey man, what are you doing here?" Alec sled as he embraced his Cael in a warm brotherly hug.

"Well, I've been trying to get a hold of you the past two days. I wanted to check and see if you were recovering well."

"Oh yeah, sorry about that," Alec apologized earnestly to his friend.

"It's no problem, I just wanted to check up on you." Cael turned his gaze over to Lin who was making her way towards the two guys. "I guess you're feeling better then?"

Cael extended his hand out with a charming smile for Lin, who took it in response and shook hands. "Hi, I'm Cael."

As Lin shook his hand, she noticed on the inside of Cael's forearm near his wrist was the exact same tattoo design that Wolfy has on his chest. That wasn't the only thing matching as well; just mere inches from the black inked tattoo was the same brand, _**GAV IV**_ , burned into his right forearm just like Alec. She thought it was strange, for them to have the exact same marks, but deducing that it was probably due to them being best friends, she didn't delve into the subject.

"I'm Lin," she smiled back. "I recognize you from the photo album."

Cael turned to Alec, surprised by what he heard.

"Photo album? Really? Well then Lin, you are a very lucky woman my buddy here normally doesn't usually share his past like that."

Alec glared at Cael with an 'I'm gonna kill you if you keep going' look but quickly changed it to a smile when Lin turned back to him.

"Well, to be honest, I was sorta snooping and coaxed Wolfy to tell me more about himself." Lin shrugged her shoulders with a mischievous smile.

"Yeah that's pretty much the only way to get him to talk about himself."

Lin laughed with Cael as Alec rolled his eyes at his best friend.

"Just so you know, if he is ever being difficult when you ask him questions, you could always talk to the best friend here. I have some really good stories about him."

"Cael…" Alec said warningly to his friend. Cael only smirked back in response.

"Like the time he was sold off at our schools boy toy auction."

Lin laughed hysterically as Alec looked annoyed. "Oh my God that is too funny! You were some girls slave for a day."

"Really Cael!" Alec sighed as the other two continued to laugh.

"Man Lin, you should have seen him. Strutting down the catwalk and stripping for the crowd—"

"No way!" Ln was positively glowing with glee at the story while Alec remained embarrassed.

"—He had boy toy painted on his chest. He made a lot of money for our school that day."

"Yeah I bet he did," Lin playfully nudged Alec beside her.

Cael was about to tell another embarrassing story about Alec when he was suddenly interrupted by a loud techno ringtone coming from Lin's back pocket. Lin took the phone from her pocket and glanced at the bright screen, muttering to the two guys that it was a text.

Alec noticed the big smile she had falter to a frown as she read the message.

"Everything okay?" Alec asked her worriedly.

"Oh yeah everything's fine, it's just…" sigh "…that was work. They need me for a job."

She slipped the phone back into her pocket before turning her gaze back to Alec.

"I'm sorry but I got to head out." Lin sounded truly sorry for having to leave so suddenly.

"Hey, it's fine," Alec reassured her with his kind smile. "Just be safe out there alright?"

Lin walked over closer to Alec and suddenly embraced him in a quick but warm hug. She stunned him even more when she gave him an unexpected quick chaste kiss on the corner of his lips.

When she moved away, she saw the reddening cheeks on Alec's face that left her chuckling as she turned to Cael.

"It was nice meeting you Cael." She waved at him goodbye.

Cael waved back at her. "It was nice meeting you too Lin. I hope Gray here will bring you around more often. I still have plenty more embarrassing stories to tell you."

"Ooh, well I'll have to definitely come by more often then." Lin gave her signature arrogant smirk before turning back to a mildly annoyed Alec.

"I had a great time today. We should hang out again soon."

"Yeah I would like that," Alec told her kindly.

"How about next Friday?" The two looked over to Cael.

"You're performing at Glitz next Friday aren't you? You two can hang out after."

Lin's beamed excitedly at the idea while Alec kept looking irritated at his friend.

"Sounds great, I'll make sure to save the date."

"Awesome!" Cael clapped his hands together. He glanced over at Alec who was looking positively livid at him for setting him up but Cael only smiled wider at his friend. "See you then."

"Well, I guess I'll see you next Friday Wolfy." Lin waved at Alec. Her small slender hand gently brushed across his chest as she walked away to her parked car, swaying her curvaceous hip side to side as she made her way across the yard. He could swear she was doing that on purpose.

Once Lin had turned the corner and was out of sight, Alec turned around to find Cael looking back at him, eyebrow arched and cocky smile on his face.

"What?" Alec asked his friend. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Oh nothing, _Wolfy._ " Cael shrugged his shoulders but kept the same expression as he walked to the lawn chair where he picked up the small hospital cooler off the grass and placed the strap on his shoulder. "Now why could she be calling you Wolfy?"

"It's just a nickname she gave me when she saw my wolf pendant."

"Uh huh sure," Cael teased jokily. "Let's go inside. I want to hear about this date you went on."

Alec sighed in frustration. "It wasn't a date! We were just hanging out for a bit."

"Uh last time I checked, 'hanging out' didn't end with kissing, or that amorous way she looked at you before she left."

Alec fiddled through his keychain until he found his house key and unlocked the front door.

"It was just a kiss on the cheek, it hardly meant anything," Alec explained as he motioned for Cael to go through the doorway and closed the door behind him. He followed Cael to the living room. "And she just has a flirtatious personality, is all."

"So why did you come over?"

"Well, like I said, I wanted to check and make sure you were healing fine and I wanted to drop you off some more blood packs."

Alec found Cael standing over by the entertainment center, in his hand is the photo album, flipping through the pages.

Alec cleared his throat, gaining the attention of his longtime friend.

"That book seems to be the popular choice today."

Cael chuckled as he turned to another page. "You know, for a guy who prides himself in being mysterious, you sure do leave it out in the open for people to see."

 _I'm not mysterious_. As a person who prides himself being 'mysterious', as you say, I don't expect to have people coming in and out of my house, so I've really had no need to hide my stuff since living here."

"Hmm true," Cael nodded in agreement. "And yet you let Lin get a glimpse into your past."

Alec let a frustrated moan and plopped his body down onto the sofa.

Cael didn't have to see the look on Alec's face to know that he was worried about something. He could feel in the air around his friend.

"Now you're thinking it was a bad idea. To tell Lin about yourself."

"Maybe it was. I don't know if I should have said anything."

Cael laughed at his friend's uneasiness. _He really does over think things, doesn't he?_

"Alec, God forbid you let a woman into your life and let her get to know a bit about you. Especially a woman that really likes you."

Alec chuckled as Cael continues to look through the photo album. He figured Lin just wanted to be friends. He could handle friendship but anything more…he didn't know. It didn't end so well the last time he got involved with someone—and any other past relationships he had.

"Would you tell her?" Cael asked suddenly, taking Alec from his thoughts.

"Tell her what?"

"What you really are?"

"Would I tell her that I am an 1800+ year old werewolf/vampire hybrid? Yeah, because that is a really good idea."

"Maybe it is."

Alec snapped his head toward Cael, who was acting like he was still looking through the photo album but was clearly waiting for an answer.

Cael glanced up from the book to see the incredulous look etched on Alec's face.

"Please tell me you were just joking."

"No," Cael responded back nonchalantly. "Well, I don't think you should right now. Maybe wait a few more weeks, maybe when there's something more between you two, but I think that it could be a good thing."

The shocked look on Alec's face became even more so, if it could, at his friends response.

"Please, do tell how telling Lin what I really am is a good thing for me to do."

"Well," Cael started. He scratched his cheek on the scarred side of his face as he continued his explanation. "It could be a good thing for you to share that part of you with someone else, especially with a woman you seem to like very much."

"I do not like her!" Alec quickly interjected. Cael gave him a skeptical look. "Not like that at least."

"Oh please," Cael scoffed in amusement. "You allowed her to go through your things and told her about yourself."

"For the last time, I didn't let her go through my things! Lin did so without asking."

"Regardless, you could've stopped her, if you truly wanted to."

It was true. He could have stopped Lin from going through his photo album. He didn't have to tell her anything about him, about his past.

"So do you like her?" Cael asked him, breaking the silence between them as he took a seat on the recliner.

Alec sighed and rubbed his hands on his face, leading them into his hair, raking his fingers through his chocolate brown locks as he tried to find the right words to say.

"I don't know honestly. I mean—I like her. I like being around her." A smile crept on his relaxed face as he thought of more things to say.

"Lin's funny, smart, and tough as hell and a total bad ass and…really beautiful."

"Sounds like you do like her." Cael smiled at his friend. "Could it be more? Maybe love?"

The smile on Alec's face faltered as he heard Cael's words. Love, that was one of the reasons he chose not to be with anyone.

"I don't think so," He answered somberly.

"Alec, I know that you think you'll hurt someone if you let them get close to you—"

"I think that is all the reason I need. I mean, look at all my past relationships and see how well they all turned out."

"But you can control yourself. In case you forgot, you're the one that taught me everything about controlling the beast." So I know you can, you've done it before, for centuries."

"Just like I did the last time?"

"What happened in New York was not your fault—"

Alec gave Cael a disbelieving look.

"It wasn't you're fault and you know it!" Cael asserted his comeback. "Kore coming back and forcing you to do what she wanted wasn't your doing. You couldn't go against that damned sire bond that binds you two together."

"Something you know all too well," Alec muttered.

"Yes, I do." Cael seriously stated. "I remember the terrible things you forced me to do against my will, and when I defied you, I paid the price for it—"

Alec didn't want to look at his friend but he knew what Cael was talking about. It was literally on his friends face.

"—But I also remember you breaking that sire bond a long time ago and released me. You have changed—for the better and have done years of good. I think you deserve some happiness for yourself. It's the least the universe could do for you."

Alec wanted to believe what Cael said, he truly did but he did a lot of bad things in his past and his past was a long one. _Years of trying to be good doesn't wipe away centuries of being bad._

It seemed like every time he found a bit of happiness, something or someone would come along and destroy it. Alec had found it easier to be alone. In the long run, he wouldn't have to worry about anyone getting hurt because of him.

Then again, today, today was probably the best day he has had in a long time. Alec almost forgot how much fun it was to hang out with someone.

Now that he thought about it, being with Lin, he felt like he could be himself, he was himself around her with no hitch. For once, being around someone, he felt…relaxed when he was with her. Like he forgot what he really is. It was a really nice and welcoming feeling.

It might be too soon to tell but the possibility of happiness could be in his future. He just prayed that this time, nothing will get in the way and destroy it.

 **Across the city at The Stilwater Police Department**

Troy was sitting at his desk, deep into his undercover work reports that he had to turn in. His desktop was cluttered with other files and reports that have been piling up since he began his undercover assignment. He wasn't wearing his usual gang attire but instead opted for a more professional look of a light blue button up tucked into his black jeans and a silk black tie loosely wrapped around his neck, since he was going to be in the building today

It wasn't easy but he managed to convince Julius to let him off for a few days. It was tough giving the Saints Boss a convincing lie, the man was a really good lie detector. Luckily for Troy, he was really good at lying, it was one of the reason's he was picked personally for this job by Chief Monroe himself.

Now, after being on the streets for so long, he was back in the bullpen with the other officers around him, bustling around as they worked on cases of their own. It was so…boring to him. Troy remembered when coming to work was exciting to him. However now, this place just didn't have the same flare like it used to. Right now, he could for some car chasing down the streets and beating on some gangbangers and destroying dust labs. As dangerous as it was, he liked it. Not only was it thrilling and dangerous, he was making the city safer with each kill.

Sure, he'd been out on patrol on the streets, going up against the city's criminals, but it was different taking them down as a Saint. He wasn't restricted by the laws the cops were forced to follow. With the Saints, there were no rules except one, do not hurt civilians.

He knows he's a cop, an enforcer of the law, but it just felt awesome for once to not have to worry about breaking the law when dealing with those asshole gangbangers terrorizing the streets.

A quick sharp slapping sound of something hitting his desk broke Troy's train of thought and his concentrated gaze snapped to his disruptor.

"Whoa sorry, I didn't mean to startle you," Troy's friend Emilio quickly apologized.

Troy gave his friend a quick reassuring smile. "It's alright man, so what's up?"

"I got some info on that kid, like you asked." Emilio raised the manila he had slapped on the desk moments before and passed it to Troy's outstretched hand. "Sorry it took so long to get this to you but I had a hard time finding anything on this kid."

Troy had to admit, it was a little light. He honestly didn't know what he expected, but he thought there would be more info on this kid but he was glad all the same to have something to read about him.

"Thanks Emilio, I owe you one."

Troy has tried on occasion to casually ask questions about Gray, or Alec, as he read the kid's name on his birth certificate, but he would always find an excuse to not answer him or he would give Troy some cryptic answer but now he had something to go on.

As he read the info, Troy was surprised at what he read. Alec came from a very rich and influential family, something that the kid seemed to conveniently leave out. Reading further, Troy found out that Alec attending one of the most prestigious schools in the country. It made him wonder why this kid is living in this city. _If this kid is so rich, why is he in a gang and slummin' it in the Row?_

When I read through this kid's info, I had a hard time believing that he is a gangbanger," Emilio chuckled as he leaned back into his chair. "He belongs at an ivy league school. Not on the streets."

"Yeah no kidding," Troy smirked as he continued to read silently. "But then you see this kid take on a group of thugs and you'll think twice on that."

From what he could tell, Alec was a good kid, until he found something interesting.

"Well well well, it looks like Mr. Perfect ain't so perfect after all. Looks like he got arrested three years ago." Troy smiled as he waved a police report in his hands before reading the reason Alec was arrested.

The smile on Troy's face slowly faded as he read the report. His expression changed to that of shock. This wasn't some petty crime like he thought. This, what the kid was a part of, was a murder. Multiple murders in fact. He remembered it well, it was all over the news. Everyone thought it was wild animal attacks from the mutilation of the bodies. That changed when the bodies were marked by a symbol carved into their flesh.

"What the hell!" he looked up to his friend who looked perturbed sitting across from him. "Did you read why he was arrested?"

Emilio nodded as he shifted in his seat. "Yeah I did. But he was exonerated from the crime, so there's no need to go further into it."

"No need?" Troy repeated in disbelief. "This kid was accused of murder! He was the prime suspect!"

"Until they didn't have any real evidence on him," Emilio explained calmly. He knew it was better to be calm when Troy got like this.

"No real evidence? It says right here the kid has a tattoo of the same markings carved into the victims flesh. It says he was in a relationship with one of the victims!" _How the fuck is that not enough evidence?_

"All circumstantial. I have a cop buddy in New York and he told me they found out someone was trying to frame the kid. Some guy named Daemon, I think the name was, and this girl, I forgot her name, though I remember it was something exotic."

"Or that's what they want you to think," Troy muttered angrily. Emilio sat there, staring at his friend who was trying so hard to pin this already closed case on this one kid whose name was cleared of the crime. "Bro, why are you trying to believe that this kid did it?"

"Because it seems really strange," Troy responded back to his friend. "His family probably paid off the cops to pin it on someone else. This was some really demented shit here, and this kid was the prime suspect. I want to make sure we aren't letting a psychopath run around the city with a gun."

The two fell silent but it wasn't calm. Emilio can see Troy deep in concentration; he was thinking of something, he knew it. Emilio has known Troy since their police academy days, he knew his friends expressions well by now.

"I'm gonna do a further investigation on the kid."

Emilio rolled his eyes, knew that was coming a long way away. He opened his mouth to respond but before he could utter a single word, Troy's cellphone went off.

Troy picked up the phone and answered the call.

"Yeah chief? Oh…okay…yeah I know…yes sir…I'm on my way." Troy hung up his phone and stood up from his seat. He collected a few files, including the one about Alec.

"Gotta go, Monroe wants a report on my progress."

Before Troy made it around his desk, Emilio stepped in front, blocking his way.

"Look Troy, I know it's pointless now telling you to leave this alone, but…this kid…be careful when dealing with him, alright?"

Troy nodded and quickly went around Emilio and marched down the rows of desks to the exit.

Emilio watched Troy exit through the double doors.

"I wonder how he'll take it?" Emilio muttered to himself, a hint of a smile forming at the thought of his friend's reaction of what he'll find about this kid. _He's gonna lose his shit for sure._

A small chuckle escaped his lips as he turned around, walking away. _Once he's over the shock, I'm sure he could be useful in getting rid of Alec. Hell, he is already half way there._

As he made his way across the busy room, Emilio raise his right and examined a thick silver ring with a blue gem the size of a thumb nail shining in the light.

His fingers grazed the engraved Latin on the ancient piece of jewelry.

 _"Sumus Venantium,"_ he whispered the words engraved around the gem. A dark smile spreading across his dark menacing face.

"This city is gonna get more interesting."


	8. I want the truth! Pt1

**Hey everyone! I know it's been such a long time but I am finally back with a new chapter! YAY!**

 **Believe me, I did not plan on taking this long to finish up the eighth chapter, but with two other stories and the occasional writers block, I had to step away from the story to let the ideas come to me. (How ironic is it to get ideas for a story when you are working on another completely different story? LOL)**

 **So, I had planned to have this chapter posted this past weekend, however, I got into a bit of a freak accident that ended up injuring my hand, one of my fingers that left me incapable of typing for a couple of days. But, I'm recovering well and can type a much better now than I did a few days ago. I wanted to make sure I got this chapter posted as soon as possible for you guys.**

 **Well anyways, nonetheless, it's finally done and posted and I couldn't be more excited for you all to read. I hope you all enjoy the eighth chapter of The Monster of Stilwater.**

* * *

The Monster of Stilwater

Ch.8

I want the truth!

Pt.1

 ***TROY***

He couldn't believe it. Troy absolutely couldn't believe it. Yet, all the evidence was spread out all over his small living room floor. Files, folders, old books all scattered about on the floor and coffee table

Troy sat on his couch, a glass of whiskey in one hand with a bottle of the alcohol in his other. He was having a hard time processing anything and everything he had read and been told these last week of days.

The memory was still fresh in his mind as if it had just happened.

 _ **Flashback**_

 _Troy was pacing back and forth in his living room with his fifth mug of coffee in his hand and had pulled an all-nighter. He couldn't sleep, not when he had opened a dam of information on Alec Gray. All over his floor were files upon files of old police reports dating back to at least five decades._

 _ **KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK**_

 _Troy looked up from the reports he had in his hands, his eyes wide and bloodshot but still full of energy nonetheless._

 _The undercover cop closed the folder in his hands and tossed it onto his couch as he scrambled to get to the front door and swung it wide open with too much enthusiasm._

" _Whoa dude! You look like shit," Troy's friend Emilio stated when he saw the tired and disheveled look on Troy. "When did you last sleep?"_

" _46 hours ago," Troy answered back enthusiastically. Emilio's expression turned to surprise._

" _But that's not why I called you here. Quick, come in!"_

 _Troy walked away from the doorway, leaving a confused Emilio standing alone._

 _Emilio stepped into the apartment and found a complete mess. Empty beer bottles tossed on the floor, old Chinese takeout containers were strewn on the kitchen counter and table, and cigarettes buds enough to fill six packs were piled into one ashtray. Then there was the floor. He bent down and picked up an old looking report of a homicide that took place over twenty years ago. Reading the report, a smile crept on Emilio's face._

" _You're not going to believe this!" Troy exclaimed. He grabbed Emilio and pushed him onto the couch._

" _Okay so, I have I done further investigation on Alec Gray, you know, to find out more on this kid, and guess what?"_

 _Emilio shrugged his shoulders and shook his head._

" _There was nothing," Troy answered excitedly._

" _There was nothing? That's why you called me here? To tell me you found nothing?" Emilio retorted annoyingly, but he knew Troy would find nothing. Not under Alec Gray at least._

" _I found nothing…on him specifically." Troy responded back. He took a big swig of his coffee before resuming. "I was met with a bunch of red tape and classified files and I thought that was kinda weird because why would some kid's info be classified to the general public unless they were like under some sort of witness protection program, which I don't think a newly recruited gangbanger would be? Right?"_

" _Right, I guess."_

" _So then, I went back to the police reports on the murder's he was suspected of committing three years ago and guess what!"_

" _What?"_

 _Troy stood up straight and stretched his arms out wide. "There have been similar murders just like the one in New York before in other in other states, even other countries around the world. Even here in this city! All of these are cases with the exact same type of murder, spanning decades!"_

' _Got 'em!' "Whoa, that's insane!" Emilio exclaimed, attempting to look surprised with the information he already knew. He and Troy took a seat of the couch. "But that still doesn't prove that he did any of these murders. Alec was only a suspect in the New York murder and these other similar cases happened decades ago."_

" _You see, I was thinking that too! So I delved further and further into the cases you know, did a little more extensive research and found the prime suspects in said murders." Troy, still very wired from his many cups of coffee, shot up from the sofa and walked over to the counter where a few folders were stacked. Troy flung the unneeded folders to get to the single manila folder. When he sat back down, Troy practically shoved the folder into Emilio's hand._

 _Emilio opened the tab that kept the folder sealed and removed the contents from inside. He would have smiled if he wasn't supposed to act like he didn't know what's going on._

 _In Emilio's hand were mug shots. Each one had a different name and different date from when they were taken throughout the past eighty years, at least. The only thing that remained the same in each of these photo's was the man in question. He had a different look that matched the decade but there was no denying it, the guy's in the mugs shot was indeed Alec Gray._

" _They all look similar," Emilio told him, making sure not to give away that he already knew what Troy was getting at. Not yet, at least._

" _No, not similar! They are all the same!" Troy pulled out a more recent picture of Alec and placed it right beside the mug shot of Alec in 1953. "This is the exact same guy! This is Alec over fifty years ago! This one was taken here at department downtown!"_

 _On the outside, Emilio looked calm and composed as he listened to his friend, but on the inside he was celebrating. Troy finally cracked it. The real test will be if he can handle the next bit of information._

" _You must think I'm crazy right?" Troy asked his friend with a small tired smile on his pale looking face. "I'm talking about this fuckin' kid being…alive for decades or something. But…but something is there and Alec Gray is right in the middle of it all. It can't be a coincidence that he looks exactly like every single guy in those mug shots. He's been brutally murdering people for years but how and why, I can't answer."_

 _Troy relaxed back into the back cushion of his couch and rubbed his hands up and down his tired looking face._

 _Emilio could see this was driving his friend crazy that he was not able to find the solution. Troy wasn't the type to leave a case unfinished. He would put his life on the line to make sure the case closed and the right perpetrator was caught and punished for their crimes. It was because of that quality that Emilio considered him a friend and he chose Troy to help him get Alec Gray once and for all._

 _Picking up a few of the case files and opened them to read the contents._

" _Have you noticed anything unusual about the victims? Anything in particular?"_

" _Uh…well…besides being torn to pieces, not much," Troy responded, still leaning back into the couch._

" _Oh, wait!" Troy sat back up as remembered something. "Yeah I think there was something about the bodies being sanguinated."_

" _Sanguination?" Emilio asked, sounding curious._

" _Yeah, most of the victims were completely drained of blood with bite marks on places like their wrists necks and thighs. It's weird, almost as if…as if…"_

 _Emilio knew what Troy wanted to say. But for fear of sounding like a complete nutcase, he chose not speak the word._

" _As if it was a vampire?" Emilio finished Troy's statement._

 _Troy nodded in agreement. "Yeah but I mean that's ridiculous. Vampire's aren't real."_

 _Troy expected his friend to laugh and agree with his statement. However, Emilio didn't say anything, letting the silence be his answer._

" _Holy shit!" Troy exclaimed, stunned that his friend would believe in something so ridiculous. "Dude, you don't believe in vampires, do you? 'Cause, you know they don't exist."_

' _Oh I wish that were true.' "Troy, how many times have you worked on a crime scene, helped on a case that was just…too bizarre, even in this city?"_

 _Troy shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know, quite a few I guess."_

" _Some, even similar to these murders?"_

 _Troy thought about it for a bit, remembering a few unusual cases that he worked on that involved sanguination._

" _Uh, yeah. Actually there were a few here and there but we've just assumed it was just a bunch of homicidal Goth's taking pretend a little too far. I never thought it could have been anything else because vampires don't exist. They're nothing more than movie monsters and scary stories."_

" _I wish that was true," Emilio told him. Troy's friend stood up from the sofa. His hands moved to the buttons on his shirt and began unbuttoning them one at a time._

" _I'm probably breaking at least a dozen rules just doing this but you need to know the truth. Lives are at stake."_

" _Whoa hey what are you doing?" Troy hollered covering his eyes when he saw his friend taking off his shirt._

" _Look," Emilio told Troy. "Look at these scars. Do they look a little familiar to you?"_

 _Troy stepped over to take a closer look at his friend's bare torso and sure enough, what he saw surprised him. Bite marks of various sizes marred Emilio's flesh, just like the ones on the victims._

 _Troy looked up at his friend's now serious expression._

" _Vampire's are very real, my friend," Emilio calmly asserted to Troy. He pointed to a set of bite marks right between the shoulder and neck. "This one was a gift left by your friend Alec Gray years ago."_

 _Troy shot up from his seat on the couch, his expression very clear that he was surprised by the sudden news of the kid._

" _Wait! You know Gray?" Troy sputtered incredulously. "What the fuck man! Why have you been keeping it a secret?"_

" _Troy, calm down and I will explain everything," Emilio attempted to settle Troy down a bit. His friend was already on edge from the combination of fatigue and an excess of coffee. He was glad that Troy wasn't packing a gun on him or else it might have turned ugly._

" _Now, what I'm about to tell you goes against the laws of my people-"_

" _What law? What people? Emilio, you're not making any sense!"_

" _Troy, calm down and let me tell you," Emilio calmly tried to bring Troy's tense level down. "But first, you have to promise me that you will not repeat what I am about to tell you to anyone."_

 _Troy was still reeling from the revelation that his friend that he's known for over a year has been keeping this a secret, but he agreed to relax and sat back down onto the couch._

 _Once Troy seemed calmer, Emilio began his explanation._

" _My family is part of a secret society that… fights against the vampires werewolves and other monsters that lurk in the shadows, killing people."_

 _Emilio paused for a minute, letting this information sink in for Troy, who still seemed unwilling to believe this. 'He has to believe it, or else I won't be able to get him to help me out.'_

" _This can't be real," Troy muttered to himself in disbelief. "I know that I'm sleep deprived and shit but I'm sane enough to know that that can't be real."_

" _I'm afraid it is." Emilio slipped off the ring on his middle finger and tossed it to Troy, who examined the piece of jewelry._

" _That ring is worn by members of the society called The Venatore," Emilio informed Troy. "The blue gem is unique and can only be found in various parts of the world. It has magical properties that make the wearer stronger and faster to withstand attacks against such powerful monsters and demons."_

 _Everything he was hearing sounded like complete bullshit. Never in his life did Troy ever hear about magical gems unless it was in a story he read. However, he trusted Emilio. He considered him a good friend and a good man that so far hasn't lied to him._

 _Troy sighed before giving his friend a response. "So what, if I were to put on this ring, I would be stronger and shit?"_

" _No," Emilio flatly answered back. "My blood is absorbed into the gem so it will only work for me and me alone. It's a standard practice when the rings are distributed to new members. It's so if it somehow ends up in someone else's hands, they won't get the power and cause chaos. It happened before and it wasn't pretty."_

 _Troy didn't know if he should believe Emilio. It's not like he's lied to him before and he has always had his back. However, all of this, it was just too crazy._

" _So…so if what you're saying is true, that Gray is a… God I can't even believe I'm saying it…Gray is in fact… a vampire?"_

" _More or less," Emilio simply stated with a shrug of his shoulders._

" _More or less!" Troy's barked out at his friend. "What the hell is the more part?"_

 _Emilio exhaled a deep sigh before continuing._

" _Alec is more than just a vampire," Emilio began explaining. "He is what most people would call…a hybrid. Two types of monsters fused together to become a stronger monster."_

 _Troy was wide eyed in shock when he heard what Emilio was telling him._

" _Fuck man! So Gray is what? Some sort of super monster? Are you kidding me?"_

 _Emilio shook his head. "Alec Gray is a savage beast. Don't let his demeanor fool you because all of it is just an act. It's who he is and he can't change that about him. He leaves a bloody trail wherever he goes."_

" _If all of this is true," Troy slowly said, carefully choosing his words. "Then why are you telling me this? Why not just…kill him and be done with it?"_

 _Emilio shifted his body on the sofa, making the springs creak from the movement when he faced his friend._

" _Alec comes from a very old, very powerful family, which makes bringing him to justice too difficult."_

 _Troy could understand that. It was frustrating whenever he worked on a case that involved any high profile figures, especially when they were clearly guilty and still managed to get off on some 'technicality'. However, it still didn't fully answer his question._

" _Again I ask, why are you telling me all this?"_

 _Troy watched closely as his friend paced back and forth across the small living room until finally he came to a stop in his tracks and turned to him. Emilio walked over to the couch to take a seat beside Troy and placed a hand on his shoulder._

" _I need your help to kill Alec Gray," Emilio flatly told Troy._

 _Troy thought he was joking. He thought this whole conversation was a joke but the serious look in his friends eyes told him otherwise._

 _Troy smacked Emilio's hand from his shoulder and stood up from the couch. His bloodshot eyes wide with shock at what his friend had said._

" _Are you out of your God damned mind?" Troy practically yelled at his friend. "Alec Gray is my friend! I can't just kill him! He's helped the Saints more times than I can count against those other gangs and hasn't killed any innocents! He's a good guy!"_

" _IT IS A SAVAGE BEAST!" Emilio yelled out louder. "I HAVE SEEN ITS TRUE FACE AND KNOW EXACTLY WHAT IT IS AND IT IS NOT A GOOD GUY! IT ISNT EVEN HUMAN!"_

 _Troy could see Emilio's body shaking with anger and his normally calm eyes glared a burning hatred like troy had never seen before. He had never seen Emilio like this before, it really stunned him to see his usually calm and composed friend literally lose his shit so suddenly. 'What the hell did Alec do to him?'_

 _Emilio must have noticed the confused and worried look Troy was giving him and quickly changed his demeanor and regained his composure after a few deep breathes. Once he was calm again. Emilio took his seat back on the couch. Unfortunately for him, it still didn't change the Troy was giving him._

" _I'm sorry Troy, for going off on you like that," Emilio quietly apologized. "It's just…it's just that Alec has done a lot of terrible and unimaginable things to countless innocents…my family being among them."_

 _Troy was surprised at the new information he received just now. "Your family?"_

 _Emilio gave him a small nod in response. Emilio never mentioned his family before, not once, now that Troy thought about it. 'So that's what this is all about.'_

" _This is a revenge thing, then?" Troy asked him. "You want me to help you kill him for your revenge."_

" _Troy, if we don't deal with him now, he will murder this city. I have seen what he's done, what he's capable of and if we let him continue to run free, these streets will run red with blood of the innocents."_

 _Emilio moved closer to Troy._

" _Please, for the sake of this city, help me kill him."_

 _Troy didn't know what to think, to believe. He believes in facts and absolute proof but all he has is nothing but coincidence and hearsay._

" _You still don't believe me, do you?" Emilio asked him. Troy didn't know what to tell him. Yes, he believed that Gray is linked indeed linked to the murders and if they could somehow find proof, he will have him arrested, however, he was still very unconvinced about this whole monster nonsense that Emilio was telling him. It was just too farfetched to believe._

 _With a sigh, Emilio looked down at his watch on his wrist._

" _Good, we still have time," he muttered to himself. In a sudden movement, he stood up from the couch and turned to Troy._

" _Come on, if we leave now we can make it before sundown."_

" _Go where?" Troy asked, clearly confused with his friend._

 _Emilio opens the front door and waits for Troy halfway through the doorway._

" _To find your proof," he simply answered. "Now lets go before we lose our time."_

 _The drive wasn't too long. The late afternoon traffic had past and the streets were less crowded to drive through._

 _Troy sat in the passenger seat of Emilio's car. The combination of coffee and pretty severe lack of sleep, he just wasn't in the best shape to drive._

 _As he looked out the window, Troy saw the Stilwater city limits sign, indicating that they are no longer in the city._

 _Not far out of the city, Emilio turned off the highway and onto a lone dirt road that passed through the surrounding woods._

 _Troy knew exactly where they were going._

 _Emilio drove for about ten more minutes until Troy felt the car begin to slow and then come to a stop behind one other car, a jet black bootlegger._

" _Why did you stop?" Troy asked cautiously. Emilio gave him a quick look before opening his door and stepped out of the vehicle._

" _We have to walk the rest of the way. I don't want him to hear the car engine," Emilio explained as he began walking up the trail to Mt. Claflin._

 _The two guys hiked up the tall hill for twenty more minutes until Emilio stopped in his tracks when he came to a curtain of brush at the end of the trail._

 _Troy watched as his friend crouched down and carefully walked closer to the brush. Emilio made a shush movement to Troy and beckoned him to follow._

 _Quietly, Troy did the same as Emilio and followed Emilio's movements toward the tree line._

 _As he moved closer, Troy suddenly felt his arm being grabbed before he felt his body being pulled to the ground. Troy tried to remove Emilio's hand but Emilio only told him to be quiet and pointed to the clearing beyond the tree line before letting him go._

 _The lone clearing wasn't empty. By the looks of it, someone was in fact living there. On one side near the rest of the forest was a decent sized RV parked near the tall pine trees that lined the clearing. In the center was an area made to be a fire pit with large stones placed in a circular formation with burnt wood lying in small pile in the center of the circle with a couple of fold out chairs and a small circular table standing in between._

 _The two didn't have long, a couple of minutes at most before the door to the RV opened and the familiar figure of Alec Gray himself stepped down the three steps protruding from recreational vehicle and walked barefooted across the grassy clearing in nothing but a pair of old worn jeans and a towel that was draped on his right arm._

 _Troy watched as Alec neatly folded the towel and placed it on the small table. Just when he thought it was over, Alec then proceeded to unbutton his jeans._

" _Whoa what the fuck!" Troy whispered a little too loud when Alec undressed his jeans and boxer briefs. Emilio quickly covered Troy's mouth when Gray snapped his head towards their general direction. His bare body tense and alert. Alec remained cautious for a bit longer before relaxing and resumed to pick up his clothing and fold them in a neat pile atop the towel._

" _Shh," Emilio whispered the warning to Troy. "You're going to blow our cover. Just watch what happens and be as quiet as possible."_

 _Troy nodded and turned his gaze back to the clearing._

 _It wasn't long before things took an extremely crazy turn._

 _The dusky orange and red sky dimmed to its dark navy color and the bright white full moon rose high above them._

 _AAHH GAAHH!_

 _The sudden screams of pain rang through Troy's ears as his now wide and horrified as watched gruesome scene playing out before him._

 _The sound of Gray's bones snapping and his skin tearing gave Troy a sickening feeling in the pit of his stomach. He wanted to turn away, he wanted to run away from this horrific scene but he couldn't. He felt paralyzed; nothing in his body was cooperating. All he could do was keep watching as a man he considered a friend go through this gruesome transformation into a beast, a monster._

The sudden ring of his cell phone made Troy jump back to reality and away from his horrifying memories of that day. He picked up the phone from the coffee table and saw that it was Julius calling him.

"What's up?"

"Troy, where the hell you been?" the deep voice of the Saints boss asked his lieutenant. "You haven't been to the church in a week!"

 _Shit, has it been that long?_ "Ah dammit Julius, I'm sorry. I've uh… I caught a bug and have been bed ridden for the past week. But I'm feeling much better today."

"Good to hear. Listen, turn to channel 7 news. There's something you gotta see."

Troy did as he was told and turned on the television the designated channel. _What did the Saints do while I was gone?_

On the television was news reporter Jane Valderama standing in front of what looked like a blown up plane surrounded by a mixture of firefighters police and EMT's.

"Breaking news, Angelo Lopez, leader of the gang The Carnales, was killed in an airplane explosion at Stilwater Airport this afternoon."

Troy stood there in front of his TV, shocked at what he had heard on the news.

"Authorities have no one in custody but witnesses have claimed to see a purple sports car speeding down the airstrip and out of the airport just as authorities had arrived, indicating that the new street gang called the third Street Saints were somehow involved-"

"Can you believe it?" Julius asked him excitedly. "Dex said the Playa shot an RPG rocket at the plane just as it was about to take off."

"Yeah…that's pretty unbelievable," Troy muttered mindlessly as he watched the aftermath of Alec's mess and the firefighters cleaning it up. Jane Valderama said that ten of the airport employee's working out on the strip were caught in the explosion. Seven of them were seriously injured and three were in critical condition.

"Troy?" Julius voice called out through the phone. "Troy! You still there?"

"Yeah Julius, I'm still here."

"Good. I'm having some of the boys clean out the Carnales mansion for a victory party. It might take a few days to get all the Lopez's shit outta the house. Everywhere you turn was a painting or photo of the family, vain muthafucka's. Be sure you make it to the party, a'ight?"

"Yeah Jules, I'll be there. Count on it."

"Good man!" Julius exclaimed. "I can't believe we got rid of those Lopez's and their gang. I'm glad we recruited that boy. He's a beast!"

Julius ended the call soon after, leaving Troy once again to his thoughts.

"Oh, you don't know how right you are."

 ***ALEC***

News had spread all over about the collapse of the Carnales dynasty all over the city, especially in the Row. Right after Angelo's death, the gang quickly fell apart and scattered to the wind, dropping their flags and calling it quits.

It astounded Alec how quickly such a large and old gang collapsed. After taking away their drug business from the Columbians, it only took a matter of weeks before the thirty year old Dynasty collapsed from the loss of its main pillar of support.

When he and Dex arrived back at the church, the whole gang greeted them like heroes and congratulated them.

Julius came up to them to personally congratulate them on a job well done.

"It's been all over the news and radio, great job fella's!"

Dex waved his hands and shook his head.

"Don't thank me Julius, it was your boy here that deserves all the credit. He shot the plane with a rocket launcher, I just drove the car."

"Is that right?" Julius gave Alec a half smile. "Well, I'm not that surprised. You did a helluva job Playa. I plan on celebrating our victory with a party at the former Carnales Mansion, so make sure you attend."

"I'll definitely be there Julius," Alec told his boss. A party sounded great, but what sounded better was relaxing on his bed and sleep off the soreness he was feeling all over his body. As easy as it was to take down the Carnales, it left him pretty worn. He needed a run through the woods to help him feel better.

Alec was still recovering from his fight with Victor the day before. _That man had to be more than human,_ Alec thought to himself as he sat on his fold out chair beside the campfire, remembering the fight between him. He took a sip of his 'special' coffee, letting the warmth and affects fill him up and rejuvenate him after a long night of running through the forest.

He took a long deep breath of the fresh forest air. Alec took another, quicker whiff when he noticed something…off in the air. The scent of the nearby forest, it smelled different and it wasn't an animal.

That's when it dawned on him. Someone had been here.

Standing up, Alec scanned his surroundings, making sure nothing seemed out of place. Everything looked to be in order, nothing stolen or moved. He didn't smell anything different in the RV so nobody went inside and snooped around.

Alec took another whiff of the air to lock onto the strange scent and followed where it was coming from. The trail led him to the other side of the clearing near the dirt path.

The scent smelled familiar, Alec was sure of it, but it was already dissipating. Whoever they were, they left hours ago.

The thought of his secret place being compromise worried Alec. _Who could it have been? How did they find the place? What did they see?_

All these questions kept popping up in his mind, worrying him even more. If someone knew what he really is, he could be in real trouble. Luckily for him, the intruder was someone he knew, from the familiar scent. He just wished he could pin point who it was.

The text tone he set on his phone rang in his pocket, taking Alec away from his investigation. The text came from Johnny, telling him to meet him at the church ASAP.

Alec downed the remaining drops of his coffee concoction and returned to the RV to finish getting ready before heading back into town.

Alec was again greeted by a round of congrats by a few Saints hanging around at the church as he made his way through the decrepit building to Johnny's 'office'.

Alec always felt a little uncomfortable whenever he went into Johnny's office. It wasn't the armory of guns the guy kept in the room or even Johnny himself. It was the wallpaper of naked women decorating the church walls from head to toe. It must have been the old fashioned side of Alec that made him avoid direct eye contact with these beautiful and scantily clad women.

"So, I heard what you did to those Carnales fucker's yesterday," Johnny smirked as he leaned back into his plush desk chair. Standing beside him was Dex leaning against the back wall. "Dex filled me in. Sorry I couldn't congratulate you yesterday."

Alec watched as Johnny lit a cigarette he had taken from the inside pocket of his purple jacket. He offered one to Alec but he politely refused. Dex took one as Johnny puffed out a cloud of smoke before speaking again.

"I have to say, that's nothin' short of impressive and believe me, I'm not that easy to impressive."

The Lieutenant told Alec to take a seat to which he obliged and sat in the wooden chair directly in front of the large desk.

"Y'know, when I first saw you, I thought you didn't look like much. Then again, I don't look like I got an eight inch cock, so I guess were both full of surprises."

Alec couldn't help but roll his eyes at how big this guy thinks his ego is.

"I called you here for a job so listen up," Johnny began explaining. He took the cigarette and held it over his ashtray and tapped on it a few times to get rid of the ash forming on the burning end.

"The Vice Kings are named after one guy, Benjamin King. Now, that shit don't happen unless you're a professional or a bad ass, and in King's case, he's both."

Alec nodded. He's heard about the leader of the Vice King's around town. The guy has a pretty heavy reputation around Stilwater and if half of what they said is true, it's going to take a lot to take King down from his throne.

Just as Johnny was about to say something, ringtone with a hip hop beat echoed around the room. Johnny pulled his cell from one of his pockets. Alec could see a smile forming on the Lieutenant's lips as he read the caller ID.

"Hold up, I gotta take this," Johnny told Alec as he put the phone to his ear.

Leaning back into his seat, Johnny answered the call.

"Aisha, what a pleasant fuckin' surprise-" Johnny's arrogant smirk quickly faltered when the woman on the other side of the line began yelling.

"Whoa slow down," Johnny told the woman named Aisha as he sat up in his seat. The yelling coming from the phone only got louder causing Johnny move the phone away from his ear and immediately regretting telling her to slow down.

"Okay that's not slower, that's louder."

Johnny put the phone back to his ear and listened to the rest of the call. Suddenly he shot up from his chair, causing both Dex and Alec to jump in surprise.

"Shit! Where is she headed? Don't worry, I got this!"

"What's wrong?" Dex asked Johnny when he hung up the phone.

"Some muthafucka's grabbed Aisha's sister right off the street."

"Shit man, that's the sixth girl this month! Do we know who's doing this?"

"Yeah, the Vice Kings," Johnny responded darkly.

Dex shook his head in disbelief. "No way man. Kidnapping ain't King's style."

"Maybe that slut Tanya is goin' behind King's back. Don't know, don't fuckin' care," Johnny suggested rather harshly. He seemed clearly wound up about the situation.

Johnny turned to Alec still sitting on the other side of the desk.

"You ready meet the Vice Kings?"

Alec nodded. He already knew what Johnny had planned for him to do.

"Just tell me where I need to go."

"Aisha said they were driving a yellow sedan. Tail those bitches back to wherever they go and get those girls back."

Alec got up from the chair.

"You got it Johnny, I'll be back."

Alec turned on his heels and made his way to the exit.

"Yo hold up!" Johnny called out to Alec, making him stop just before stepping through the doorway. "Do you need me to get you a few of our guys to go with you?"

"No, I got this," Alec responded confidently.

Johnny looked at him, an impressed look clearly expressed on his face as he gave Alec a nod of approval before letting him go on his way.

It wasn't hard to find the yellow Sedan. It wasn't a very common color in the Row since the Saints kicked out the VK's from the area.

Alec didn't have to worry about being seen by the driver. Instead of taking a car and following him through the streets, Alec took a more subtle approach and decided to go on foot.

He rode his bike back home to make it look like he took the motorcycle on this mission. Once it was parked in the garage, Alec ran to an empty alleyway and climbed up the brick walls until he reached the rooftop.

He had a much better view of the layout of the area, making much easier to spot the car than to mindlessly drive around in the streets and hoping to find the car passing by. This way was a much better approach. Not to mention he wouldn't have to worry about getting stuck in traffic.

Sure enough, he found it. The yellow Sedan was casually driving down the street just a couple blocks from where Alec had perched himself. With a swift fluid motion, Alec jumped onto the edge of the rooftop and ran across to get enough speed and leapt to another building and began his pursuit of the enemy vehicle.

Alec jumped onto the rooftop of an abandoned building when he saw the VK's car had parked into the empty parking lot.

The VK got out of the car and slammed the door shut before stomping off to the other side and opened the back door.

The girl he kidnapped tried to make a dash for it but the VK thug had much quicker reflexes than she did.

"Bitch, you better try not to run away again!" The VK threatened the young girl as he held onto to her arm tightly and led her into the building, keeping a pistol pointed at the back of her head.

Once the coast was clear, Alec jumped down from the rooftop and discreetly snuck inside the building. Unfortunately for Alec, being discreet wasn't enough.

As soon as he opened the door, he was met with a large group of surprised VK's that began to shoot at him when they realized he wasn't one of them.

Taking behind a stack of crates, Alec waited for the perfect moment to strike.

One of the VK's ran up to Alec to take his chance. Before he could pull the trigger, Alec kicked him in the gut and then in the face, knocking him unconscious before he could hit the floor.

Alec took the unconscious VK's gun and shot the others down, giving him a clear way to the backroom where the rest of the girls were being held captive.

Alec could hear the girls frantic cries from the other side of the thick metal door.

He banged on the door a couple of times to get their attention.

"Hey, it's going to be okay. I'm a friend," Alec reassured the girls. "I'm here to get you out. Just hang on."

The girls cried for joy at being saved. Alec could hear them even thanking him already as he looked for a way to open the door.

The door was locked but there was no key in sight. Surprise surprise. Alec tried to ram into it but it barely budged, the door was too thick and heavy for him. He could try to punch through it but that would take hours and he didn't have that kind of time. By now, more VK's should be on their way.

"Hey, do any of you know where the key is?" Alec asked the girls, hoping one of them got a glimpse of where the key was kept.

"Yeah it's with the guy that brought us here," one of the girls answered him. "He said he was going to the strip club down the street."

"Okay, I'm going to get the key." Alec told the girls.

"No, please don't leave us!" one of the other girls cried out. Alec could hear the rest of them becoming frantic.

"Don't worry, I promise I'll be right back and take you girls to safety," Alec calmly reassured the girls. When he heard a chorus of "Okay's" from the girls, Alec ran out of the building and down the street to the strip club.

"Ah shit!" Alec cursed to himself. He should have known. He drove down this street so many times before. He should have been able to recognize every building, every store to know that the club in question was T' N' Ay.

As much as he didn't want to go back into that club, he knew that he had no choice. Lives depended on it.

 _It's good they didn't change the lighting,_ Alec thought to himself as he walked through the crowded red and pink tinted room. _The dim lighting should help with my cover._

"Gray?"

"Are you kidding me right now!" He muttered to himself when he heard that familiar voice. Alec kept walking, hoping maybe that she would think he was the wrong guy. He didn't like doing it, but he just didn't have the time to deal with Samantha.

Alec barely got walked a few feet before he felt a small dainty hand grab his right arm and turn him around. Sure enough, there was Samantha looking surprised to see him.

A moment passed with them doing nothing but staring at each other until Samantha pulled Alec into a warm embrace. Alec was reluctant at first but for old times' sake, reciprocated the hug.

When she let him go, the smile on Samantha's face quickly disappeared to an angry frown and before he could defend himself, she slapped him hard across his face.

"OW!"

"That was for not calling me back!" Samantha yelled at him. It had been months now since she left her last message. _Apparently she is not over it yet._

It was a good thing the music was loud to cover their conversation, though he was pretty sure no one would be paying attention to them when they have half naked girls dancing for them.

"I cannot believe you just ignored me after what happened that night!"

"Samantha, I'm sorry about that-"

"You could have just told me you're a vampire!"

Alec just stood there, speechless as he stared wide eyed at her. _What the hell! How does she know?_

"I-I'm a…what?" Alec asked. Playing dumb was the only thing he could think of doing at this time. From the annoyed look Samantha gave him, it appeared to not have worked on her.

"Really Gray? You're going to play dumb?"

 _Shit, I really don't have time for this!_ He thought to himself desperately. He needed to find the VK thug and get that key, soon, but Samantha wasn't going to let him off so easily. There was only one thing he could do now.

"Okay, okay Samantha, I owe you an explanation but I can't do it right now," He anxiously told Samantha, praying that she notices the urgency in his tone.

"Why not? What's going on?" She asked him, sounding a bit worried when she spoke to him.

"Because I'm looking for someone that came in here probably ten, fifteen minutes ago. He's a member of the Vice Kings-"

"Oh yeah! I saw a Vice King come in around that time!"

"You did!" Alec was relieved.

"Do you know where he went?"

"I'll tell you where he is," Samantha began as she gave him a wolfish grin that made Alec a little nervous. "But you have to promise me something."

Alec reluctantly nodded. He didn't have much of a choice in the matter.

"You have to promise and I mean PROMISE that you will explain everything to me!"

"Yes yes, I promise I will explain myself. Now, tell me where the VK is hanging out."

Samantha took his hand in hers and led him through the crowded club towards the back. He remembered that area very well. There was a hallway lined with small rooms where customers that paid a little extra received 'special' attention from the girls.

"He went in there," Samantha told Alec when they stopped in front of the entrance of the hallway.

"Thanks Samantha, I really appreciate your help."

Alec was about to walk through the hallway when Samantha stopped him from going in any further.

"Wait! Maybe I can help you!"

"Thanks but you already did enough for me," Alec politely declined her offer. When he tried to walk through the hallway again, Samantha stopped once more.

"Look from what I can assume, this might end up in a gunfight that will alert the cops and his other friends. I can distract him long enough for you to get whatever you need from him and you can slip back out undetected."

Alec sighed. She was right. This VK might end up shooting this place if he spots him anywhere near him and the last thing Alec wanted was to alert the authorities or any other VK's that might be lurking about.

When Alec agreed, Samantha squealed with joy and gave Alec another hug. Once she let him go, Alec thought of an idea that could help them do the mission discreetly.

Samantha smiled as Alec informed her of what he planned.

"Oh yeah that definitely sounds like a good plan."

Inside the small square room, the VK thug impatiently waited for a new girl to walk up to his personal stage and entertain him.

"Where that bitch at?" he muttered angrily to himself. He snatched the 40oz he purchased and chugged the remnants of the alcohol. When the bottle was completely emptied, he tossed it to the corner of the room and sat back into the small couch as he continued to wait.

"I paid good money to have one of these hoe's to myself and she ain't even here!"

Just as he finished his complaining, the lights dimmed and music began playing from the set of speakers overhead.

Looking ahead, he saw the beautiful and curvaceous silhouette of Samantha dancing seductively behind the thin red curtain.

The VK thug leaned back, smiling like an idiot as he enjoyed the exclusive show.

The curtains pulled away, revealing Samantha completely to her customer. Little did he know, hiding on the other side of the stage behind the wall was Alec, crouching and waiting for the perfect time to strike.

About halfway through the song, Samantha unclasped the black lacy bra she wore, supposedly for her client, but she glanced to the side where Alec remained hidden and gave him a wink and a quick shimmy of her busty bosom.

Alec rolled his eyes and chuckled at his friend. _Leave it to Samantha to take any opportunity she can._

Samantha stepped down from the stage and sauntered over to the VK thug where she proceed to sit on his lap and grinded against him as she danced to the song.

She had the guy completely enraptured to her. She crouched down and crawled between his legs. Her soft smooth hands gently grazed his torso up to his chest and to his neck. Her bare buxom bust rubbed hard against the guy as she made sure the VK guy was occupied with her.

The thug tried to grab her waist, but Samantha slapped his hands away.

"No no," Samantha said to him in a sultry voice as she wiggled her finger from side to side. "No touching."

The VK was about to protest when Samantha placed her finger on his lips and told him to shush.

Next to the couch was a small square end table with a single drawer built in. Samantha opened the drawer and pulled out a red silk blind fold and a pair of fuzzy pink handcuffs.

"Let's make this more interesting, shall we?"

"Oh hell yeah," the VK smirked and let her put the blind fold over his eyes and cuffed his hands above his head to a hook drilled into wall behind the couch

Samantha's hands went back to massaging the guy's chest and moving down his torso until they reached the buckle and began undoing his belt and unzipped his pants, letting the jeans fall to the floor around his feet.

Once the VK looked secured and oblivious, Samantha discreetly stepped away and let Alec take her spot.

"Hey why'd you stop?" the VK asked after a minute of nothing passed. His head moved from side to side as if trying to find her. "You were doing so good."

"Why thank you!" Alec responded in Samantha's place.

The VK thug practically jumped out of his seat when he heard the unfamiliar and masculine voice.

"WHAT THE FUCK!"

The thug tried to get up from the couch but the handcuffs restrained him from doing anything. He shook and rubbed his head against his shoulders and arms enough to get the blindfold off of him to find Samantha standing on the other side near the stage where she began putting the bra back on. Standing right in front of him was the unfamiliar figure of Alec Gray.

"What'chu gon' do homeboy?" The VK spat at Alec, trying to look tough. It was hard for him to pull it off with the fuzzy handcuffs holding him to the wall and sitting on the couch in his tighty whities.

"Huh? You gon' kill me? Go ahead and try! I dare you! My boys will be all over your ass when they find me!"

"Nope, I don't want to kill you," Alec told the thug as he stepped closer to him. Once he was close enough, Alec bent down and snatched the pants from piled at the VK's feet and began sifting through the pockets. When he couldn't find what he was looking for, Alec tossed the baggy jeans to the other side of the room. "I just want to get the key and let those girls you kidnapped and set them free."

"You stupid ass muthafucka," The VK thug spat his curse at Alec. "You really think I'm just give you whatever you want?"

Alec didn't answer him, instead, his attention was concentrated on the glint of a thin metal chain hanging on the VK's neck. He grabbed for it and snapped the chain off.

Sure enough, there was the key hanging from the chain.

"You son of a bitch!" The VK snapped and tried to break from the restraints holding him back. "I'm gonna kill you! Give me back that key!"

Alec pocketed the key as the thug kept yelling profanities at him and walked over to the door with Samantha following him. He opened the door and was about to leave the room but stopped as another idea came to mind.

"Just hold on a second," Alec muttered to Samantha and walked back to the thug.

"This is for all the girls you and your pal's kidnapped."

The thug was about to say a comeback until he was suddenly interrupted by the sharp blow to his face. The room echoed with the loud crack of his jawbone breaking from the impact of Alec's fist. The unconscious VK slumped back onto the couch, blood trickling from his slacked jaw.

"Whoa," Alec heard Samantha say. He turned around to see a look of shock expressed on her face. "Is he going to be okay?"

"Yeah, he's still breathing," he assured her when he got to the door. "Don't worry, he isn't in any immediate danger. Someone will find him."

When he got back to Samantha, Alec held out a wad of cash he had taken from the unconscious VK's wallet when he was going through his pockets in search of the key. "For you troubles."

"Thanks Gray!" Samantha smiled back when she took the money and stuffed it in her bra.

Alec walked to the door and held it open to let Samantha through first.

Once they reached the end of the hallway, Alec felt his arm being grabbed by Samantha's hands.

"We have a deal, remember?" Samantha reminded him. "You'll tell me everything!"

"Yes, when I get the chance, I promise I'll explain everything."

Samantha nodded in agreement and gave him one last hug before he departed the club.

"It is good to see you again," he told her when he wrapped his arms around her much smaller body.

"Yeah, same here," she smiled at him. "Call me when you get the chance."

"I will."

Once the two left each other's embrace, Alec waved at her and made his way through the crowd and walked out of the exit.

No other VK's had came by, yet, much to Alec's relief. He didn't want these girls getting caught in the crossfire.

Alec drove that VK thug's yellow sedan back to the abandoned building. He was going to need a car if he was going to transport all those girls back with him.

Once he got inside, Alec ran to the back and unlocked the door with the key he stole. When he opened the door, all the girls rushed to him, crying and thanking him for saving them.

Once they were calm and composed, Alec led them through the building, keeping an eye out for any yellow clad gangsters that might have shown up.

Luckily for them, they were met with no trouble getting out of the abandoned building and got all the girls safely in the car.

It wasn't until they were driving out of the parking when a gang of yellow cars raced down the street and blocked their exit.

"Shit!" Alec muttered to himself when the VK's got out of their cars with their guns pointed at them. "Get down!"

The girls did as they were told and ducked down.

Alec heard the back window shatter when a barrage of bullets shot through, making the girls scream and cry at the danger they were in.

Alec looked up and could see a large enough gap between two cars he could go through. There were a couple of VK's in his way but he figured if they value their lives, they'll move.

Alec stepped on the gas pedal and sped through the parking lot.

The VK's continued to shoot at him, hoping to get him but all had missed. the two VK that stood in between him and his exit tried to shoot him down only for one of them to get hit by the sedan and the other jumped away just in time. The sedan scratched against the two car's that tried to block him, leaving a large terrible looking scratch and dents along the side and one of them without a side mirror before Alec sped down the street and made his way back to the Row.

When they entered the church, Alec and the girls were greeted by Johnny and Dex who were sitting on one of the pews. Both of them got up and met up with Alec in the center of the large room.

"Had any problems getting the girls back?" Dex asked Alec when they sat down.

"Nah, nothing I couldn't handle myself," Alec shrugged with a smile.

"Man, you're bad ass muthafucka," Johnny praised Alec and patted him on the back. "I'm beginning to see what Julius see's in you. You are now my official go-to guy when it comes to Vice King business."

"Cool, just let me know when you got something for me to do."

The sudden ringing from his phone turned Alec's attention from his friends and to his pockets to retrieve the ringing electronic. Looking at the screen he could see it was a text, from Cael.

 **Get to the hospital! ASAP!**

Alec didn't like the look of the text. Cael was never the urgent type unless the situation was dire.

"Hey guys, I gotta go," Alec announced to Johnny and Dex as he got up from his seat. "I just remembered I have something to take care of."

"Okay man, later." Dex pulled Alec into a bro hug and Johnny followed suit.

"Hey remember were having a party at the Los Carnales Mansion once we get it all cleaned up. Make sure your there."

"Wouldn't miss it, later guys."

Alec was halfway across the room when he heard Dex snap at Johnny.

"How many times do I have to fuckin' say it? It's LOS Carnales or THE Carnales, not THE Los Carnales!"

"Whatever. Nobody cares about that shit anymore since the Los Carnales are Los gone-o's."

"Man stop trying to be funny! You know you're jokes suck."

Alec went back to his house to get his Estrada and rode it through the city until he made it to Stilwater General Hospital.

On his way to the hospital, Alec received another text from Cael, instructing him where to go once he enters the building.

Walking across the lobby, Alec made it to the elevator on the other side and pressed the basement button to take him down.

It was always quiet down in the basement. No patients were kept down here, unless they were dead.

Alec walked down the long white bright hallway until he reached the end where the double doors of the morgue waited for him. When he made it to the doors, Alec pushed them both forward to let him in the sterilized fluorescent lit room. On the other side of the room near wall of metal cabinets that held the dearly departed, was Cael pacing back and forth. He must have been deep in thought if he didn't hear Alec come in. he was making Alec feel more worried by the second.

"Cael, what's up?" Alec asked his friend. Cael's head snapped toward Alec's direction and stomped over to him.

"We've got a problem," was all Cael had said to Alec before walking back to the cabinets, leaving Alec confused.

"Problem? What problem?"

Cael didn't answer Alec's question. Instead, he opened one of the cabinet doors in the middle row. Curious as to what his friend was doing, Alec followed him to see what he was talking about.

Cael slid the covered body named John Doe out from the cabinet. Alec watched as Cael rolled the sheet just past the navel of the pale corpse of a man.

Alec had never met the man before but he knew one thing for sure about him; this guy was a werewolf. He could smell that distinctive on the corpse. Beside the werewolf scent, there was another one that permeated from the body. It was sickly sweet, enough so that Alec grimaced and backed away a bit from the corpse.

"Can you smell it?" Cael asked Alec.

Alec nodded, he knew exactly what Cael was talking about. The both of them are well aware of what excreted that particular smell.

"Yeah, it's wolfsbane."

Cael gave him a nod to show he was correct.

As Alec examined the body before him, he noticed a bunch of old scars and faded bruising but what caught his attention was the four fresh bullet holes marring his body. There was one on the right shoulder, two in abdomen and finally one bullet hole right in between the eyes. That nauseating scent was coming from that bullet hole.

"Do you know what happened?

"Yeah, I snuck out to the crime scene where he was found. It seems he was being chased though the mills in the factory district. There were trails of blood that led to the nearby lake where he was attacked. However, I followed his scent that led me to a shanty some ways away with his scent all over it. _So, he was homeless._

"From what I can tell, it looked like he was hunting in the area when he was ambushed."

Cael pointed to the three bullets holes on the body. "Those three came from a .22 caliber rifle. They were used just to wound him…to play with him, make him suffer."

Alec could tell Cael felt disgusted as he spoke those words. He couldn't blame him. Only a sick fuck would shoot an animal and chase it around for kicks.

Alec then pointed to the bullet hole on the head. He knew this kind of shot very well.

"That shot came from a pistol, close range, execution style." Alec muttered to himself, he looked up over to Cael. "Let me guess, it was a silver bullet."

Cael nodded in agreement. "The cops took the bullets as evidence. They believe it was a gang related death, possibly for initiation, since the bullet isn't your average everyday type of ammo."

Alec took one last look at the deceased before Cael covered the body once again and carefully pushed the sliding table back into the cabinet and closed the door.

"Is this the first?" Alec asked Cael.

Cael looked at him but didn't answer Alec. However, Alec figured it out.

"How many more were there?"

Cael let out a deep sigh before answering. "This one makes three."

"Three!" Alec repeated, shocked by the answer and even more so that his oldest friend didn't tell him. "There have been three supernatural deaths and you didn't tell me!"

"I didn't tell you because I assumed they were just a coincidence," Cael explained himself. "This is a dangerous city in case you haven't noticed. People get shot from just stepping out of their front door. I just thought that these two were a casualty of Stilwater's own violence."

Half a minute of silence passed between the two. Alec felt bad for blowing up on Cael, he should have known better.

"Cael, I'm sorry. There's no excuse for the way I acted-"

Cael only held up his hand to stop Alec from apologizing any further.

"Hey, you're already forgiven. I'm the one who should be apologizing. I should have told you what was going on since the beginning."

A moment or two passed as things cooled down before Alec began the conversation again.

"What were they? The other two."

"The first one was a vampire, though the attack was botched because the vampire was still alive and brought into the hospital by EMT's called on scene."

"Called on scene? Didn't the EMT's notice anything… vampish from him?"

Cael shook his head. "The Vampire was too weak to keep the vamp look on him and his fangs were torn out along with his tongue so he couldn't say who attacked him."

 _Shit, that must have hurt._

"Luckily I was rushed in to help him because once the vampire died…well…you know what happens. So…I erased the doctor's and the nurse's memories of what happened and made them believe he ran away."

Alec nodded in approval. That was a good call on Cael's part.

"What about the other one?"

"Another werewolf, female. However, she wasn't killed in the same manner as our recently departed friend here."

That intrigued Alec.

"What happened to her?"

"Well, when the cops found her, she had been hanged from a tree in the middle of a park and her body cut in half."

Alec shook his head in disbelief. _How could someone do something like that?_

"You know what this means, don't you?" Cael's question brought Alec back from his own thoughts.

Alec sighed as he pinched and rubbed the bridge of his nose in frustration. As much as he didn't want to admit it, all the signs pointed to one thing.

"Yeah, the hunters are here."

"The Venatore have outlawed public executions for what? Eighty years now?" Cael inquired his friend. "Now they hold court for any supernatural charged breaking laws."

"I don't think it's the Venatore, specifically," Alec responded. "They've been so strict with upholding that law that they've even imprisoned their own for breaking it."

Alec paced around the room, a worried look clear on his face when he turned to Cael.

"I think we have a rogue hunter on our hands."

"Well shit," Cael chuckled. "Just what we need, a psychopathic hunter with no rules to hold him back."

"It's not like we haven't done with one of those before," Alec joked. There was a moment of silence between the two of them before the both of them broke out in laughter.

"All jokes aside, what do you think we should do?" Cael asked Alec.

Alec sighed as he thought about their situation.

"Well, I think the best thing we can do is keep to our normal schedule. Make whoever it is that's attacking our kind think we have no idea what they're doing."

Cael was about to protest. He could understand why. This was a very dangerous situation they were in and if not done properly, they could end up dead.

Alec held up a hand to stop Alec from interrupting him before explaining.

"During that time, we can do a bit of an investigation of our own and find out who it is."

Cael agreed with Alec, it was the safest approach to deal with this rogue hunter.

"Hey Cael?" The man in questio turned his gaze back to his friend, giving him his full attention.

"When you got back to your base from your run last night, did anything seem…off to you in any way?"

Cael looked at Alec, very curious as to what he meant.

"How so?"

"You know, like anything moved or taken. Any suspicious scents hanging around your camp?"

Cael shook his head. "No, nothing of the sort. Why?"

Cael watched as Alec calmly paced a bit with his arms crossed around his chest, waiting for a response.

"This morning, when I came back to my camp from my run…there was a different scent in the air, a human scent."

"Human? Are you sure?" Cael asked him, surprised at what he heard.

Alec nodded his head. "Yeah, I'm sure. And you know what the worst part is?"

"What?"

"I recognized the scent."

"Shit Alec," Cael breathed as he shook his head.

"I know I know!" Alec paced a little faster. He ran his hands through his hair in frustration.

"Did you tell anyone else about your campsite, besides me? Did you tell Lin?"

"What? No, I only told you and…and…ah fuck!"

"What? What is it?" Cael asked worriedly as he watched Alec stomp around the room. once he came back to him and calmed down, Alec gave him an answer.

"A few months back, I told Julius and Troy that I went camping up on Mt. Claflin."

"You did what!" Cael's voice made it clear he was very surprised that the most reserved person he knew would just give information like that.

"They saw my duffel bag when I drove them to a job," Alec began explaining. "I only told them that I was going camping on the mountain. I didn't tell them where."

"So, you think it was Julius and Troy at your campsite last night?"

Alec shook his head. "Not Julius. I just saw him not too long ago and his scent didn't match the one in the camp."

"So then, that just leaves Troy."

Alec chuckled at this assumption.

"I should have known…the way he kept asking me questions."

"He asked you questions?" Cael asked suspiciously.

"Yeah, it felt like an interrogation though," Alec responded.

"So, you think Troy is the rogue hunter?"

"What! No, Troy is not the rogue hunter," Alec answered back confidently. "He doesn't have the money or the pedigree to even be in the Venatore. Besides, Troy isn't that violent, despite being in a street gang. He actually tries to avoid killing when he can."

Another question came to Cael's mind that he should have asked in beginning.

"What if he's working with the rogue hunter?"

Alec thought about it for a moment. It was possible. Troy already seemed suspicious of him of being shady. It wouldn't help if someone knew of his past came around and started filling Troy's head with the idea of what he used to be. Troy's unusual innate sense of righteousness would tell him to help someone claiming to be a good guy. Alec just hoped that the suspicion lies with him and him alone. He doesn't want Cael to get caught in any of this mess.

"If he is, I don't want to let him know that we are on to him, then we lose the element of surprise," Alec told Cael. "In the meantime, we should steer clear of our changing sites, at least until I deal with this hunter."

"We."

Alec looked over to his friend.

"What was that?"

"You mean we," Cael repeated to his friend with a smile. "Do you really think I'm going to let you deal with this lunatic hunter on your own? You'll be dead without my help."

"Cael no. I don't want you to get hurt. So far it looks like this hunter isn't after you and I want to stop him before you become a target."

"Too late, I've already said I'm going to help and that's what I'm going to do."

Alec huffed a breath of reluctant agreement. There was no way to dissuade Cael from his decision.

"Now I'm wishing I hadn't broken the sire bond between us," Alec muttered, much to Cael's amusement.

"Alright, so since we can't go back to our campsites like you said, then where are we supposed to go when we need to turn?"

"Well, we have a month before the next full moon and I was hoping that we could catch this guy before then but if we can't, then I'll rent out a couple of storage units we can use."

Cael nodded. "Sounds good."

The conversation between the two was interrupted by the text tone on Alec's phone. When he took the phone from his pocket, he saw that Lin had sent him a message telling him to her at the Ultor Dome.

"Hey that was Lin, I gotta go meet up with her across town," he informed Cael, who had a mischievous look on his face.

"What?" Alec asked him.

"Oh nothing," Cael said to through that wolfish grin of his. "Go on. Go and be with your _girlfriend._ " Cael put a little too much emphasis on the word girlfriend that made Alec roll his eyes.

"Really, are we ten year olds now?" Alec asked his friend as the two made their way to the double doors. "Besides, she is not my girlfriend."

"Yet," Cael said, continuing the joke. In truth, Cael wasn't joking. He really hoped that his oldest friend would find someone to be with. He deserved it. Aelia would have wanted Alec to move on find happiness with someone else.

Alec just rolled his eyes at his friend as he stepped out of the morgue and into the extremely bright white hallway.

"So, you're coming to the gig at Glitz tonight?" Alec asked.

"Yeah, I get off early tonight so I'll probably be there sometime before you start."

Alec nodded. "Great, then you can keep Lin company while I'm on stage."

That mischievous expression returned on Cael's face, making Alec curse at himself for saying anything.

"So, Lin IS coming tonight as well."

"It's what she said."

"It's what you hope."

Again, Alec rolled his eyes at his friend and shook his head and began walking down the long hallway. "You know it's not like that. We're just friends."

"Uh huh, sure you are. Have fun on your date."

"It's not a date," Alec called out from down the hallway. "Hey, remember to be on your guard and stay in public places if you can, alright."

Cael waved to show he understood and watched as his friend stepped into the open elevator. Once the doors closed, Cael turned back toward the morgue and smiled.

"It's soo a date."

After fifteen minutes driving across the city, Alec slowed his bike as he entered the parking of the Ultor Dome on the far West side of Stilwater.

Across the parking lot, Alec could see Lin's pride and joy parked near the building.

Coming from the back entrance of the large oval shaped building was Lin herself and she wasn't alone. Walking behind her were two guys dressed in the colors of the West Side Rollerz.

Alec walked his Estrada and parked it behind a large dumpster some ways away to keep it hidden and as quietly as he could, made his way to the corner of the Ultor Dome and his himself in the shadows.

There was still quite a bit of distance between him and the three other's but he could hear their conversation as clearly as if he was standing beside them.

"That's a sweet ride Lin!" The Roller with the blue muscle tee and white backwards cap said as he checked out her car.

"Uh huh," was all Lin responded with, the bored tone ever clear in her beautiful husky voice.

"Who tuned it for ya," the dumb sounding Roller wearing a blue and white T-shirt asked her.

"No one, I did it myself."

The backwards cap guy crouched down to get a better look at her car.

Alec smiled as he watched Lin grow more and more annoyed as these two guys continued to say that she couldn't have done all the on her own. _I swear, if Lin didn't have to play nice with these guys, she would have already knocked them out._

"No way, that spoiler looks like Donnie's work."

"Nah man! That underglow screams Ricky Liu."

Lin couldn't take it anymore.

"What is this, fuckin' third grade?" She snapped at the two guys.

The two Rollerz gawked at Lin, stunned at her sudden outburst. The both of them looked at each other with a stupid look plastered on their faces.

"Whad'dya mean?" the bald Roller asked Lin.

Alec chuckled when he heard Lin sigh in annoyance at the two guys. He could feel her anger swelling and the urge to punch them out right here and now.

"Forget it, see you later," Lin told them, her anger gradually going away as she calmed herself down. _Wow, she's really good at keeping her anger in check._

The two guys waved at her before turning away and leaving.

"Dude, she totally wants you," backwards cap guy muttered to his friend as they walked off.

Once they were gone, Alec stepped out of the buildings shadow and made his way toward an unsuspecting Lin.

"Boo!" Alec whispered in Lin's ear, causing her to spin around and swing a fist at him on instinct.

"Whoa!" Alec jumped back before he could get hit. He remembered what happened to that one Saint that got hit by her when they first met.

"Damn what are you? Part cat? I didn't even hear you walking over."

Lin relaxed her body as she calmed herself down.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," Alec chuckled. Lin's annoyed look softened when she saw Alec's own easy smile.

"So, what news do you have for me?"

Lin motioned for him to sit in her car, so as to not be seen in public together. This was still Rollerz territory after all.

Alec opened the door and took the passenger seat while Lin sat on the driver's side.

"So your friends seem really nice," Alec teased, much to Lin's amused annoyance. She leaned over to her glove compartment and took out a box of cigarettes.

"They're a bunch of asshole's," Lin remarked as she lit the cigarette with her lighter. "I swear to God, were not going to be able to kill these bastards fast enough."

She put the cigarette between her lush lips and took in a big puff of the acrid smoke.

"Aside from macho bullshit, I haven't heard much. The only interesting news is that a shipment of high performance cars is coming in today. It's not much, I know, so were gonna make the best of it."

"Alright," Alec agreed. "What do you want me to do?"

"Jack the truck carrying the cars before it makes its delivery and take it to Samson. He'll load up the cars with a few…surprises." Lin had a mischievous smile that made Alec a little worried.

Alec nodded to show he understood the plan and what he had to do. It seems easy enough.

Lin puffed out another cloud of smoke as she gazed at Wolfy sitting beside her.

"So what time should I be at Glitz tonight?" she asked Alec.

"Well, the set starts at eight," he informed her.

"Awesome, I'll be there at seven-thirty to get a good spot." Lin's lush red lips cracked a half smile. "I'm really looking forward to hearing you sing."

Alec grinned widely at the thought of Lin watching him perform up on stage. He was always excited to perform for a crowd but knowing Lin would be out there made him all the more eager.

"So, since it will still pretty early when the gig is over, I was thinking maybe we can hang out after," Lin proposed to Alec. "I don't have to be anywhere tomorrow, so it's not like I have to be up early or anything."

Alec was slightly taken aback by the sudden suggestion of Lin's but he was happy nonetheless to know that she wanted to hang out with him. To be honest, he wanted to spend more time with her as well.

"Sure yeah, sounds great," Alec responded back with that easy smile of his.

The two gazed at each other. Both couldn't or wouldn't look away.

Alec was enraptured by Lin's beauty and the way her gorgeous chocolate brown eyes glistened as she gazed back at him.

Before Alec knew it, Lin carefully leaned toward him, her eyes closed and her luscious lips puckered ever so slightly.

Alec hesitated to move in. He knew it was a bad idea but God, did he want to kiss her. A part of him kept him from doing so. The cautious side told him it was a bad idea. _There's a crazed hunter out looking for you for God's sake! What if they're watching you right now? You could be putting Lin in harm's way just by being in the same car as her!_

That wasn't the only reason he remained hesitant. Lin has no idea what he is. She doesn't know of the monster he constantly struggles with everyday that tries to take over. There was no way he could tell her. If she didn't believe him, Lin would think he was crazy and tell the rest of the Saints. Or worse, she could believe him and be disgusted at what he is and hate him. Alec couldn't let that happen. His friendship with her meant more to him than anything.

"Wolfy?" Alec heard Lin softly call out to him. Opening her eyes, she could see he was hesitant to kiss her. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Alec responded to her with a smile. Swiftly, he turned to his right to open the car door and stepped out of the car.

"I should get to that shipment before it makes its destination," Alec explained to Lin when he noticed her surprised expression.

Lin nodded when she realized he was right. If he didn't leave soon, he was going to miss the truck.

"Okay," Lin responded with a smile. "See you tonight then Wolfy."

Lin waved at Alec after she started the engine of her car and slowly made her way through the parking lot.

Alec began to walk back to his bike when he heard Lin's car honking at him. He spun around on his heels to see Lin lowering her window.

"Hey I forgot to tell you, be safe okay? I don't need the Saints best soldier getting hurt because of these punk ass Rollerz. It also wouldn't look good for me to lose someone on my first big job."

"Yeah, I'll try," he chuckled as he sat on the bikes leather seat. "You be careful too. We don't need to lose our best lieutenant."

With a final goodbye, Lin drove off through the parking lot and disappeared in the sea of cars driving up and down the street.

Alec revved the engine a couple of times before the engine started but he didn't move the bike just yet. From the front pocket of his leather jacket, Alec took out a pair of sunglasses and put them on then reached into his back pocket and pulled out his folded purple bandana and covered his face from nose to mouth. He didn't want the other gangs to know his identity when he was out in the open but he always made sure to wear a purple bandana to let the other gangs know that it was a Saint that hit them.

Wearing the bandana over his mouth and riding his bike at high speed down the highway brought back fond memories of the good ole days back when he was an outlaw riding a fast steed, robbing trains and carriages traveling through the wide open plains of what history now calls the Old West. In fact, what he is doing now was no different from what he had done a couple centuries ago, with the exception of the motorcycle and it was cars he is about to steal rather than gold and jewels.

It wasn't hard to find the truck carrying the vehicles. The truck in question had an escort of three blue cars surrounding it.

Alec didn't cause a big scene just yet. Knowing the Rollerz, if he takes out one in a big commotion, the others will swarm him like angry bees and he didn't want to deal with them all at once. No, for this type of situation, you needed to take them out one at a time and he knew which one to start with.

Alec swerved through the traffic as he gradually drove closer to the back escort and aimed his gun at the two back tires.

The shots were perfect. Both bullets hit the tires, causing the driving to lose control and swerve to the right outer lane and out of Alec's way. _One down, three to go._

The other Rollerz didn't seem to notice they had already lost an escort since no one slowed down or tried to attack Alec in retaliation. _Really? These idiots have no idea what just happened? How thick are these kids?_

Alec sped up next to the car guarding the trucks right side and again aimed for the tires. The car swerved before it stopped when the tires blew out from the bullets as Alec took its place beside the truck.

Now he had access to the truck's cab. All he has to do now is jump in and commandeer it.

The driver must have finally noticed what was going on because the air was suddenly filled with the loud noise of the deafening horn being blown and the truck gradually gaining more speed.

Looking ahead, Alec could see he was running out of highway. He had to act fast before the truck could reach Rollerz turf and be swarmed by an army of punk teenagers.

Alec didn't want to do this but he didn't have another choice of getting into the cab.

With a deep breath, Alec carefully stood up from his bikes seat and slowly removed his hands from the handlebars. With a count to three, Alec jumped off his bike and clawed onto the trucks door and held on tightly.

Alec turned his head around just in time to see his beloved Estrada screeching as it skidded on its side before it went under the trucks wheel and became more debris alongside the road. _God dammit, I loved that bike!_

Alec didn't have any time to mourn the loss of his bike when three bullets shot through the door from the truck's cab. One of the bullets pierced his shoulder, causing Alec to momentarily lose his grip on the door before he managed to fight through the pain and get a stable grip back on the door.

With a quick sharp jerk, Alec broke the door from its hinges and tossed it to the side of the road. The truck driver was briefly shocked at what he had just seen this young man do. Once the moment passed, he aimed his gun again at Alec.

Before the driver could pull the trigger, Alec had lunged at him and grabbed the driver by the scruff of his dirty white shirt and tossed him out the truck when he slowed it to a safer speed.

Now with the truck full of cars now in his possession, Alec situated himself into the driver's seat and pressed on the gas pedal.

The Rollerz car to his left finally realized what was happening and began shooting at the cab, trying their best not to hit any of the cars.

Alec used this to his advantage.

Speeding up faster, he tried to stay ahead of them, the cab at least, so the Roller would refrain from shooting. Alec used this moment to try and lose the Roller by driving through the traffic and hopefully lose him in the process.

However, this last Roller was more ballsy than his other pals. He wasn't afraid to hit these cars. "I guess he thinks it's more important to destroy the cars than lose them."

The passenger in the Rollerz car continued to shoot at Alec, managing to shatter the window into pieces, leaving Alec exposed to anymore bullets coming is way.

He reached over to his right side to get his gun. Panic began to fill him when he couldn't feel the cold metal of the weapon. Glancing down, he realized the gun wasn't there.

"Shit! It must've fallen out when I jumped," Alec muttered to himself. "I'm just gonna have to improvise."

Alec glanced to his left and saw the punk Roller in the passenger seat reloading his gun. He could only think of one thing to do and turned the wheel to make the truck go into the Rollerz lane. He bumped the smaller car once but it didn't do much damage and the Roller driving the car quickly recovered. Luckily, the move had paused the passenger to halt on his reloading when a few bullets scattered on the floor of the blue car.

Alec turned the wheel again, this time with more force. At the speed they were going, it should do the trick.

The truck bumped into the blue car again and this time, Alec's plan worked. The blue car spun out of control into oncoming traffic and got hit repeatedly by other cars that couldn't stop in time.

With the last of the Rollerz escorts gone, Alec was now safe from being attacked. Unfortunately, he was losing control of the truck when he turned the wheel too fast. Now, it was swerving from side to side.

"NO NO NO!" Alec cried out when then truck started turning toward the side of the freeway, quickly on its way to plunging over a hundred feet to the river below.

Alec was pressing so hard on the brakes, he thought his foot was going to go right through the floor. His hands gripped the wheel so tight he could feel the material straining from the pressure of his grip.

The truck began to gradually slow down, but he could see the truck was still heading to the edge of the freeway.

Finally, the cab hit the small concrete wall and the tires slowly rolled up onto the wall. However to Alec's relief, the truck cab rolled back down onto the asphalt road and stopped moving.

Once everything seemed safe, Alec leaning back into the driver's seat as relief began to wash over him. He did it. He got the cars, undamaged. Now all he had to do was drive them to Samson, which shouldn't be so hard.

As much as Alec wanted to continue to relax, he knew the cops and possibly more Rollerz would be on their way and he wanted to get a good head start on them before they think of catching him. He needed to make sure the truck safely to the garage as Lin ordered.

To Alec's immense relief, the truck was still in drivable condition. Looking at the GPS, he didn't have to drive much further, half a mile tops until he reached his destination.

Once the truck was ready to go, Alec backed it up away from the wall and straightened it out before making his way through the rest of the freeway and towards the garage without any more trouble on the road.

The guy, Samson, was a pretty nice guy. He offered to loan Alec one of his own cars but Alec politely declined and told him he was going to take a train instead.

"Hey thanks again man for delivering the cars,' Samson told Alec as the two walked out of the garage and into the parking lot. "I'll give Lin a call when I'm done with them."

"No problem man," Alec responded back. Curiosity getting the better of him, he asked Samson a question that has been bugging him for a while now.

"What was the point of me stealing those cars if we're just going to give them back? What is she having you do to them?"

"oh, if she hasn't told you yet then I'm afraid I can't either," Samson chuckled amusedly. "That chick will kick my ass if I spill the fuckin' beans. But I will tell you this, it's pretty fuckin' awesome!"

Alec was really curious as to what it was Lin had planned with Samson. _Maybe she'll tell me when tonight._

"Alright man, so you sure you don't need to borrow one of my cars?" Samson offered Alec one last time.

"Nah, I'm good. The train station is just a couple of blocks away and anyway I have a car at home, so I'll just use that until I get another bike."

Samson nodded. "Man, that's a damn shame about your bike. She was a vintage classic too! She must have been a sweet ride."

"Yeah, she was." Alec felt terrible about the loss of his bike that he had for years, decades. Now, it lied in a pile of ruins on the freeway. _She was such a reliable bike._

"Alright man, I better get a move on those cars. You know how Lin doesn't like to be kept waiting." Samson held out his hand for Alec to shake, which he obliged.

"Alright, see you later."

Alec turned around and walked out of the parking lot and down the block to the train station where he caught a ride that took him back to Mission Beach.

The small bathroom was clouded with the hot steam of fog when Alec stepped out of his shower. He grabbed his dark grey towel from the hanger above the toilet and dried his now clean body and hair before wrapping it around his waist.

He walked stepped over to the small rectangular mirror above his sink and wiped away the condensation to see a clearer reflection of himself to finish getting ready for tonight.

He looked over to the bullet wound he received during the fight on the highway. It had closed but still left a nasty looking bruise in its place. It was a good thing he drank some blood from the packets provided by Cael, or else it would have taken days, maybe even weeks to heal.

Once Alec was dressed and ready to leave, he went to the mirror for a last minute primping session before leaving his house with his guitar in tow. He placed the guitar in the back seat and walked to the driver's side of his bootlegger and took his seat and started the car. Slowly he reversed it down the driveway and drove it to the corner and made his way to Glitz.

 ***LIN***

For the past two hours, Lin had been running between her bedroom and bathroom with only half of her outfit on.

Normally, Lin didn't take so long to get ready. Sure she would take her time and put on makeup and do her hair and made sure her outfit looked good before taking a step outside. She wasn't like the girly girls who obsessed with looking pretty and constantly went to the bathroom to fix their hair and makeup. No, Lin wasn't like that at all, until today.

She didn't know why she was being so prissy for tonight, for Wolfy. She had never acted like this with any other guy she dated and she wasn't even dating Wolfy. Yet, here she was, running around in her matching black silk bra and underwear, trying on different outfits only to be disappointed by all of them.

Finally, she came to terms with an outfit; a pair of black leather jeans with black heels and a light grey sleeveless blouse buttoned just above her cleavage. She styled her hair into soft loose curls that bounced with every step she took.

Looking at herself in the mirror, Lin gave herself a satisfied smile before walking out of her apartment and to the parking lot down below.

The early evening air was cool as the summer months began to move out for fall in the city. In Stilwater, the Fall and Winter weather arrived very fast and bringing very cold weather with it. With the evening air gradually chilling, Lin was glad she had the sense to bring a jacket along and slipped it on. Lin loved the winter, especially the snowy winter days. She was looking forward to those days.

Lin opened the door on the driver's side of her car and sat in the seat to start the engine and drive her car out of the parking lot to make her way to the club.

 ***ALEC***

Alec couldn't believe the packed house they had tonight. He knew the band already had a pretty loyal fan base when he joined them but it was just a small group of people, maybe a few dozen tops. Since then with each performance, the band's popularity grew more and more.

Every time he went up on stage, he would see at least twenty new faces out in the crowd. Tonight was no different.

The already packed club was still filling up with more people waiting in a line outside to be let in by the bouncer guarding the front doors.

"It's crazy, isn't it?"

Alec turned away from the crowd and looked over to his left where the bands founder and lead singer Jordana Johnson, commonly known as JJ, stood beside him. She is an attractive young woman of twenty-one years with a tall lithe figure with long copper colored hair and amber colored eyes.

JJ isn't like most lead singers of bands on the rise. She didn't let the fame get to her head like most did. She always listened to the rest of the band mate's ideas and opinions and made sure everyone got an equal share of the pay from every gig they did, no matter how big or small their part was.

JJ has the talent to go far in the music business. Hell, she was even offered a record deal at Kingdom come Records. However, when Warren Williams refused to sign the rest of the band, she declined by stating that she wouldn't have gotten this far without her band mates.

Needless to say, Alec was impressed when the band mates told him that. It was very rare to find someone who would refuse fame and fortune. Luckily for her and the band, Alec has friends in the music industry and when he has the chance, he will definitely give them a call for this band. It is the least he could do for them.

"To think that just six months ago, we couldn't even fill a room. Now, people are lining up outside a club to see us."

Alec smiled. He remembered when he first performed with the band. There were only a few people that came to see them. Most of them had only been there by chance. Fortunately by the end of the performance, they had gained loyal fans that came to more gigs and brought along friends,

It took a while and quite a bit of promoting but eventually, the band's fame grew, mostly by the fans themselves who posted videos of their performances online and even created a fan page for them. Alec hadn't been too keen about putting his picture online for hundreds of thousands to see but when JJ pleaded with him to take a picture with them, he agreed on the condition that he could wear sunglasses in the photo's to make him as obscure as possible. JJ had reluctantly agreed because it was the only way Alec would take the pictures with them.

Ironically, the pictures worked out really well, especially for Alec. The sunglasses gave him a bad boy vibe that the girl fans found really found attractive.

"You should be proud of yourself. You're the one who led the band this far," Alec praised his fellow band mate. "Without you, this band probably wouldn't have survived."

"We all should be proud," JJ responded back. "Every single one of us worked our butts off."'

JJ turned away from the growing crowd and moved her gaze to Alec. "Especially you Gray. I don't know anyone who would've joined a dying band but if you hadn't replaced that asshole of a lead guitarist who abandoned us for some shitty tribute band, we most likely would've broken up and went our separate ways with this only being a dream."

Alec shook his head in disagreement. JJ was wrong. The entire band has talent to go on, he only came in as a filler.

"That's not true, JJ. I just filled in a spot for you guys. You all have real talent."

JJ herself shook her own head in disagreement.

"Have you heard yourself sing? Have you heard yourself play that guitar yours?" She asked him. "Gray, you alone are half of this bands talent and don't you dare disagree, or I'll kick your ass."

Alec and JJ chuckled and the band leader patted him on the back before leaving to do a last minute sound check before the gig.

Alec walked away from the curtains covering the stage to a spot in the back and sat on an old unused amplifier. From his pocket, he pulled out an old rectangular cassette player and put on the headphones as he pressed play to start the thirty year old cassette.

The cassette had other songs on it but there was only one song he ever listened to. It was the only song that had just her voice and no one else singing.

Beside the ring and pendant, this song was the only thing Alec had left of Aelia. It was the only recording he had of her voice. Before each performance, he always listened to it like a ritual for good luck.

 _ **Oh what will the signal be, for your eyes to see me?**_

 _ **Watching offside as I wait just in case you need me**_

 _ **So I still will set the stage, send my thoughts to you**_

 _ **I'm retrieving every wave that sent love, sent love through.**_

Alec closed his eyes as he listened to the lyrics, to the beautiful voice singing to him. He could still remember that day when he first heard her sing the song to him on her acoustic guitar.

It was just the two of them, sitting on the lakeside one afternoon with no sounds but the insects buzzing and the waves of the lake gently lapping at the muddy bank. No sounds of the city to distract them from each other.

That day was a perfect day with the perfect woman, the love of his life, his soul mate.

 _ **Now I have revealed exactly why I'm here**_

 _ **I'll be your angel if you wanna see how perfect**_

 _ **sharing love with an angel can be.**_

Just as the song faded to a finish, Alec felt a light tap on his shoulder. He quickly spun around to find Lin and Cael standing behind him.

"Hey!" Alec excitedly greeted the two. He pulled Cael into a brotherly embrace and then took a step towards Lin and gave her a hug as well as a quick chaste peck on the cheek. "I'm so glad you two could make it!"

"Well, I couldn't miss the chance to hear you sing," Lin playfully nudged Alec. "I'm still finding it hard to believe."

"Oh you'll definitely be surprised. Gray here has the voice of a choir boy," Cael playfully teased to Lin's enjoyment and Alec's mild annoyance.

"Oh my God, I can't believe you still use one of these," Lin pointed to the cassette player clutched in Alec's hand. He had forgotten it was even there. "You do know the world has upgraded to MP3 players now."

Alec chuckled and shrugged his shoulders. "What can I say, I'm old school."

Lin laughed with Alec and Cael then she took the headphones around Alec's neck and pressed one of them to her ear.

"Let's hear what you're listening to, shall we?"

The three of them both stood still as Lin listened to the song Alec had rewound to the beginning. Though the volume was low enough for only the person with the headphones could hear, Alec and Cael could hear the song just as good.

Alec glanced at Cael and gave him a knowing look. Cael knew this song well and who sang it, having known Aelia just as long as Alec had.

"This song is really good," Lin complimented once the song had finished. She returned the headphones back to Gray. "I don't think I ever heard of the band before."

"Yeah the band never made it to the big leagues," Alec explained to Lin as he wrapped the headphone wires around the cassette player. "They broke up before just after this album was made."

Alec could feel Cael's eyes on him, watching him closely. Most likely wondering if Alec was going to tell Lin the truth about what really happened to the band, and to the lead singer.

"That's too bad, that singer had a really good voice," Lin commented with a smile.

 _Yeah, she did,_ Alec thought to himself.

"Well, Cael and I wanted to see you before the show and wish you good luck."

"Hey Gray!"

The three of them turned around, facing where the familiar voice came from to find the figure of JJ walking towards them.

"Hey JJ, you remember my friend Cael?" Alec pointed to the only other male in their small group.

"Oh yeah, I definitely remember your friend," JJ coyly smiled at Cael. "Hey Cael, long time no see."

Cael returned the smile to the beautiful band leader. "Hey JJ, how have you been?"

"I've been good, but I would be better if you treated me to a dance and drink after the gig. What do you say?"

"I say, I can't wait," Cael agreed to the excited lead singer.

The blushing JJ was still smiling when she turned her attention from Cael to Lin.

"You must be Lin," JJ told Lin and held out her hand for the other woman to shake. Lin look surprised that the woman she has never met before knew her name.

"Gray talks about you, a lot." JJ explained when she noticed Lin's expression.

"Does he now?" Lin turned back to see Alec's embarrassed face glaring back at JJ who only laughed when she saw her desired results from teasing Alec.

"Oh yeah, he keeps going on and on about this great woman who is pretty and-"

"Alright JJ, she gets it," Alec quickly interrupted his now laughing friend.

"Aww, you think I'm pretty?" Lin playfully teased in a cutesy voice.

"Like you don't know you are, pretty girl," Alec complimented with a smile. Taking a step closer to her, his aqua green eyes gazing into her gorgeous chocolate browns, making Lin's cheeks flush a bright pink to the point where she had to look away. _God damn that smile of his._

"So Gray," JJ called out to her lead guitarist. Alec's gaze lingered a moment longer on Lin and gave her a quick wink before turning his attention to his band mate to give her his full attention. "We still need to do some last minute warm ups before we go on."

"Alright, I'll be with you guys in a sec."

JJ nodded and waved bye to Cael and Lin before departing from the small group to meet with the rest of the band.

"Well, we better head back to get a good spot," Cael told Alec and gave him a pat on the back.

"Yeah, keep a look out for us in the crowd," Lin added while giving Alec one more hug. Her head rested against his strong chest. Her scent invaded his nose as he inhaled her intoxicating scent that danced around her petite body. The lavender body wash she uses mixed with the perfume she always wears is an addicting blend that Alec couldn't get enough of.

Even when the two had already broke apart from their embrace and Lin had exited the backstage with Cael, her scent still lingered in Alec's memory as he made his way to the rest of the band.

 _ ***Lin***_

"I can't believe how packed Glitz is tonight!" Lin exclaimed when she took a look around the club. It had to already be filled to capacity, yet people were lined outside, eagerly waiting to gain entrance by the bouncers watching over the front doors.

"The band is very popular," Cael explained from his seat across the table, two chilled bottles of beer perspiring on the circular surface between the two. "And they are genuinely talented and not just a bunch of pretty face's like most bands."

Lin could understand what Cael meant. She had been to too many concerts of some up and coming bands, only to be disappointed by their shitty songs and their equally shitty performance.

The sudden deafening noise of applause brought Lin out of her thoughts and her gaze to the stage where the band took their respective places.

Lin's eyes found Gray to the left of JJ plugging in his guitar to the amplifier beside him.

"How's it going tonight Glitz?" JJ asked the large crowd surrounding the stage. Everyone screamed and cheered with so much enthusiasm, much to the bands delight.

"I love you JJ!" Lin heard a few guys in the crowd yell over the noise.

JJ giggled and smiled to the crowd.

"I love you too!" the lead singer's amused voice rang through the club from the microphone placed in front of her. "Alright! Let's get this night started!"

Over the loud claps and screams of the crowds cheers, Lin could hear the familiar guitar riff of Pat Benatar's song Hit me with your best shot and began cheering along with the crowd.

The band's performance was excellent, to say the least. Every song they played was great and the crowd became so engrossed in the songs that they all began to sing along with the band. JJ even went down to the crowd every once in a while and let one of the fans sing beside her.

And Gray, boy, could he play that guitar of his. When he strummed the instrument, he looked like he was in his own world. Lin was very surprised to see how enthusiastic Gray was when he performed on stage. He was always so reserved when he was around herself and the Saints that he doesn't seem like the type to go on stage in front of a large crowd. Yet here was Gray, dancing and singing as he played his guitar to the song, like he has done this all his life.

"Wolfy seems pretty comfortable up on stage," Lin commented as she watched Alec sway his body to the beat of the music.

"Yeah, he might seem shy but he's actually really comfortable in front of crowds."

"Really? People are usually so afraid to be in the spotlight like this."

Cael shook his head in response. "Not Gray. He was never afraid to be in front of a crowd, no matter how big the crowd."

Lin observed Cael's expression. It was as if he was remembering a memory, a good one by the small grin that graced his lips.

Cael must have noticed Lin's observant gaze when he glanced at her and gave her a quick smile before turning his attention back to the stage.

The fifth song the band played had finished and the crowd applauded the talented musicians. Lin and Cael joined along with the rest of the crowd.

The drummer played a beat to lead the rest of the band into the next song.

"Hey, Gray's gonna sing next," Cael told Lin and pointed toward the stage. Lin looked ahead to see Gray was taking JJ's place at the center of the stage while she stepped aside and took Alec's spot to the left.

The drummer was aided by the bands keyboardist who played a melody Lin instantly recognized as the song Take on me by Aha. The crowd screamed in delight when Gray began singing the popular 80's hit.

 _ **We're talking away**_

 _ **I don't know what I'm to say**_

 _ **I'll say it anyway**_

 _ **Today's another day to find you**_

 _ **Shying away**_

 _ **I'll be coming for your love, ok?**_

 _ **Take on me (Take on me)**_

 _ **Take me on (Take on me)**_

 _ **I'll be gone**_

 _ **In a day or two**_

A wide smile spread across Lin's wide eyed face. Saying Wolfy is a good singer would be an understatement. She couldn't believe how great a singing voice he has, especially how he is able to perfectly hit those high notes in the chorus.

The women in the crowd stampeded closer toward the head of the stage, screaming and reaching out to touch Gray or for him to touch them. Gray smiled to the crowd of women and crouched down to hold each and every one of their hands before getting up to sing the rest of the song.

 _ **So needless to say**_

 _ **I'm odds and ends**_

 _ **But I'm stumbling away**_

 _ **Slowly learning that life is ok**_

 _ **Say after me**_

 _ **It's no better to be safe than sorry**_

 _ **Take on me (Take on me)**_

 _ **Take me on (Take on me)**_

 _ **I'll be gone,**_

 _ **In a day or two**_

He's good isn't he," Lin heard Cael ask her over the shrills and screams of the crowd and the music from the band.

"Good? Good is an understatement!" Lin chuckled as she clapped along with the rest of the crowd to the keyboardist's solo.

 _ **Oh, things that you say, yeah**_

 _ **Is it life or just to play my worries away**_

 _ **You're all the things I've got to remember**_

 _ **You're shying away**_

 _ **I'll be coming for you anyway**_

Gray's eyes moved beyond the crowd and locked onto Lin's chocolate brown gaze and smiled his infamous crooked smile with and gave her a quick wink before returning to the rest of the crowd before him to finish the song.

 _ **Take on me (Take on me)**_

 _ **Take me on (Take on me)**_

 _ **I'll be gone**_

 _ **In a day**_

 _ **Take on me (Take on me)**_

 _ **Take me on (Take on me)**_

 _ **I'll be gone**_

 _ **In a day**_

The music gradually died down as the song came to an end. The crowd wildly applauded Gray's performance and chanted for another song. Lin and Cael happily chanted along with the others.

The crowd grew louder as Alec played the guitar riff for Birds fly (whisper to a scream) by the Icicle Works, closely followed by JJ's bass guitar to lead the rest of the band into the song.

 _ ***Alec***_

The concert went on without a hitch for the next three hours until the band finished playing an encore set for the crowd.

"Thank you for coming tonight! You all have been an awesome audience!" JJ waved to the crowd before departing back stage with the rest of the band.

"Great job out there guys. The gig was perfect!" Alec heard JJ praise the band as he packed away his guitar back into the worn case and locked it shut.

After a brief discussion of their next gig and saying their farewells, the band dispersed to pack up the rest of their equipment and be on their way.

Alec walked out through the exit backstage to pack his guitar in his car parked in the packed parking lot.

The evening was quiet, with only the muffled sounds of the club in the distance and the roaring of a car driving down the road.

Once he got to his car, Alec opened the door and rested the guitar case on the backseat. Just as he was about to close the door, Alec stopped, his body froze in the moment when he noticed a particular scent in the air. He recognized it, it was the one he smelled at his campsite. _They're here!_

Alec acted played it off like he didn't notice anything. The last thing he wanted was to tip off the crazed hunter, especially since he's alone. Closing the door and turning around, Alec kept his head facing toward the club, but his eyes searched the surrounding area, hoping to catch a glimpse of whoever it is hunting him. When nothing popped out at him, Alec felt his body relax as he reentered the club, this time from the front doors instead of the back.

The house DJ had already began spinning for the dancing crowd when Alec crossed to the other side. He could see Lin and Cael talking to each other. JJ must have been in the bathroom gussying herself for Cael. By the look of it, the two seemed to be getting on well. Alec wasn't surprised, Cael has a knack for making friends so easily, making people feel comfortable around him.

Alec remembered when Cael used to use that 'gift' of his to lure their victims into a false sense of security before they killed them, long before he had reformed and become the nice kind man he is today.

Alec couldn't be prouder of how his friend has become. Who, on his own, changed to be a person and now uses that gift to make his patients feel more at ease at the hospitals he works.

He didn't head to the table right away. Instead, he made a detour to the bar and get a couple of drinks for himself and Lin. He figured it a good idea to arrive with a drink for his 'date'.

The bar was busy with people mingling with each other, laughing and flirting and having a good time all together.

Some of the patrons recognized Alec from the band and praised him for the awesome gig. A few of them even asked for a picture with him, which Alec gladly obliged.

Once the last fan took their picture with him and gratefully thanked Alec for the time, the young man politely squeezed in between a few people to get the bartenders attention.

"Busy night tonight, isn't it Mark?" Alec asked the bartender, a man in his late twenties with short curly black hair and a matching beard.

"Sure is, I'm making a lot of tips tonight," Mark the bartender responded with a smile as he poured drinks. "And I have you and JJ and the rest of the band to thank for that. The owner should book you guys more often."

When he finished giving the drinks to a group of girls, Mark turned to Alec.

"So, what can I get you?"

"Just two beers, thanks."

Mark nodded and left to the fridge on the other side of the bar to retrieve the beer. Alec knew it was going to be a few minutes with all the other orders coming Mark's way, so he took an available bar stool and sat down.

Alec mindlessly tapped his fingers to the techno beat blasting throughout while he glanced around at the busy dance floor.

A few minutes passed when Mark finally came back with two cold bottles of beer. After Mark apologized for the long wait, he told Alec the drinks were on the house.

By the time Alec made it back to the table, JJ had already taken her place beside Cael. Alec was right, She did go and change out of her jeans and blouse to a nice form fitting strapless red dress and matching heels. She even changed her hairstyle and make up by the look of it. _Sheesh, how long was I gone?_

"Hey you two," Alec greeted Cael and JJ. He turned to Lin and handed her one of the bottles. "Hey to you."

"Hey back," Lin greeted Alec with a coy smile when she took the beer he handed to her.

"So Lin tell me, what did you think of our performance?" JJ asked before taking a sip of Cael's beer.

"You guys were amazing! I don't think I've had this much fun at a concert before," Lin responded, much to JJ's approval.

"I guess you're not a wannabe Rock star poser after all," Lin joked with Alec.

"Oh, so you thought I was a poser, did you?" Alec chuckled. "Well, I'm glad I could prove you wrong."

The group of four talked and joked amongst themselves for a few more minutes until Cael and JJ decided to go off on their own and disappeared into the sea of dancers.

Lin turned away from the dance floor to Alec.

"How about a dance?" she asked him.

"Sure," Alec responded back. The two of them got up from their seats and made their way to the crowded dance floor.

Lin took Alec's hand in a firm hold, as if to make sure she wouldn't lose him in the sea of people dancing to the loud pulsing beat of the DJ's music.

The two stopped somewhere in the center. Lin turned around to face Alec just as the upbeat techno song faded and the DJ transitioned to a song with a slower tempo.

While they danced, Alec could only keep his aqua green gaze on Lin. The way her curvaceous hips swayed from side to side in perfect sync to the beat of the song. How her chocolate brown eyes shined in the right light whenever Alec spun her around and how her how her long silky black hair bounced so elegantly around her face. He liked every bit of her.

"Samson called me earlier about the car shipment," Lin began telling Alec when the song dropped to a softer beat.

Alec quickly scanned their surroundings, hoping that there were no Rollerz hanging around and overhearing the conversation.

"It's okay," Lin tried to reassure him with a smile, seemingly knowing what he was thinking.

"How can you be so sure?" Alec asked, still remaining unconvinced. In his defense, they are in the heart of West Side Rollerz territory and this club is a hotspot for those punk ass wannabe racers.

"There are at least four parties going on tonight and every single one of those fuckers is at one of them getting drunk or high or both. So don't worry about being overheard."

Alec was still not so sure. For all he knew, any one of these club patrons could be a spy for the Rollerz. The gang itself might be made up of a bunch of douche bags but their leader, whoever it may be, could be the complete opposite.

Alec felt a tug on his hand and saw Lin motioning for him to follow her again, this time she led him from the dance floor and out the clubs front doors.

There was a moment, too brief a moment, when Alec caught a whiff of that familiar scent again. Unfortunately for him, the crowd was so loud and packed that he couldn't focus where the scent was coming from. Before he knew it, the two were already out of the club and into the wide open evening.

Alec hadn't realized how stuffy and hot the club was until he felt the cool refreshing evening air surround him. He couldn't fully enjoy it though, not when some dangerous person was so close to him. Alec couldn't help but look back at the club, worried that the hunter would come running through the clubs doors and attack him. He was worried about Cael. He was still in there with the hunter. _No, this hunter is smart. He wouldn't attack us in such an open place. If Anything, Cael is more safe in the club than out._

Right now, this hunter poses no immediate threat. Its recon work that they're doing, just watching Alec and Cael, trying to gain some insight on them. That was the only thing that made Alec feel a little relieved about the situation. _At least this guy won't try to fight us in plain sight._

Lin didn't stop walking once outside of the club. Instead, she kept leading him beyond the parking lot and across the street to the park on the other side.

Finally, Lin came to a stop at a fence that barricaded the currently empty canal.

"Is this better?" Lin asked, a hint of sarcasm in her sexy husky voice that made Alec chuckle response.

"Good, so as I was saying, Samson called me earlier and told me you drove the tow truck to his garage with all the cars undamaged. Well done."

"Thank you," Alec smiled at Lin's appreciation. He walked a little ways away to the nearest tree and relaxed his body against the thick trunk of the tall lush tree with his arms crossed against his chest as he kept his illuminating aqua green gaze on the woman standing before him.

Lin looked even more stunning in the moon light than any other light he has seen her in.

"He also told me you lost your bike while doing the job. I'm so sorry that happened. I know you really cared for it." Lin added. Her voice wasn't its usual playful or sarcastic tone. No, she sounded very sincere when she expressed her condolence.

Alec gave her a quick reassuring smile to let her know that it was okay and that she wasn't at fault for what happened.

"It's fine Lin, really. She died for a good cause," Alec exclaimed. Now there was something he wanted to ask Lin that has been on his mind all day.

"So, why did you want me to steal those cars if all we're going to do is give them back?"

That sly Cheshire cat-like smile of Lin's grew wider on her beautiful face, making Alec feel slightly worried at what she has planned for the Rollerz. _Oh God! What did she have me become a part of? What did she do to those cars?"_

"Well, I was going to wait until tomorrow to tell you," Lin started, slowly stepping closer toward him. "I don't like talking about work on dates but, what the hell."

Lin was acting calm and composed, but Alec could hear her heart racing. She was trying hard to hide her excitement.

"Those car's I had you steal, are rigged to blow!"

"WHOA WHOA WHOA!" Alec stood up straight when he heard what Lin had done to the cars. "You're telling me you had Samson turn those cars into mobile bombs!"

"Relax Wolfy, there not dangerous to the general public." Lin attempted to assure a very shocked looking Gray. "These cars are going to be used just for racing. The roads will be blocked to keep out any outside drivers so there won't be any innocent casualties. Besides, the cars will only blow up when the engines reach a high enough temperature."

Alec stood there silently, contemplating what he was just informed. It is a pretty good plan, he had to admit. The streets the cars will be racing will be blocked off, so the casualties will be minimal to only the Rollerz themselves. The cops alone won't even think anything fishy about the cars should they investigate. That is if they investigate.

Alec was really impressed with Lin's plan and wasn't at all surprised that she came up with the idea.

"It's a good plan," Alec complimented Lin on her idea, much to her pleasure. "So, how do you plan to get the Rollerz to get there engines hot enough?"

Lin smiled slyly. Alec wasn't too sure he was going to like this.

"There's a race going down in Chinatown on Saturday night and you are going to compete in the name of the Saints."

"Oh ho ho, so now I'm your racer as well," Alec chuckled in amusement.

"Mmhm," Lin nodded. "You're more capable to race than any other Saint and I know you can definitely give those assholes a run for their money. If you're in the lead for the final stretch, they're going to hit the nitrous to blow past you."

Lin moved closer to him, subtle but not subtle enough, swayed her perfect hips with her every movement until she came to a stop inches from Alec's towering figure. Her hands reached out to his arms, her fingertips just barely grazing his skin as she glided them up to his strong solid biceps where she pulled him closer by the cloth of his sleeves and continued to slide her slender fingers up across his broad shoulders until both of her hands linked together behind his neck and gently pulled Alec closer.

"When they do… boom." Lin breathed that last word in his ear, her cool breath tickled his ear giving him goosebumps all over his body.

"Make sure those cars get **nice** and **hot**." Alec liked the way she said nice and hot. Only Lin could make blowing things up sound so sexy.

"As soon as those cars are wrecked, make sure you get the hell out of there."

"Aww, you care about me?" Alec remarked, noting the hint of seriousness in her tone. He made sure he would keep that promise to her.

"Of course!" Lin responded with a playful nudge to Alec's chest. "You're my go to guy."

"Is that all I am to you?" Alec asked her. He did not know where that question came from or why he even said that but it surprised him nonetheless and it really surprised Lin by the look on Lin's face.

Lin arched her perfectly manicured eyebrow, surprised at the rather forward question that made Alec a little worried for saying it.

However, that changed when Lin looked at him with that gorgeous smile of hers.

"Why? Do you want to be something more?" She asked him. Alec didn't answer but he didn't need to when the two of them only gazed into each other's eyes.

Slowly, Lin began to rise on the tips of her toes as she leaned closer to Alec. One of her hands held onto his arm for support while the other snaked behind his neck that gradually pulled him down closer to her. Her eyes fluttered shut and her lips puckered ever so slightly in anticipation of meeting Alec's lips.

Alec's mind was going blank, he didn't know what to do. His mind was yelling at him to get away or he'll hurt her but his body wasn't responding.

His body tensed when her lips met his with a gentle peck. He shouldn't be doing this, he knew he shouldn't let this keep going.

Alec tried to back away but Lin held onto still and kissed him again. Instinctively, he reciprocated with more fervor.

He knew this wasn't a good idea, but her lips just felt so good. They felt so soft, like rose petals against his lips. What was driving him crazy was her scent. God, he was addicted to her scent that assaulted his nose and mouth with every breath he took. The scent was stronger around her neck but he did his best not to lower his mouth from her lips.

"Lin…" Alec breathed their lips parted for air. "Lin, I don't…think…we should-"

Alec was interrupted by the sudden soft pressure of Lin's lips closing on his own. Without thinking, his hands moved to her petite body, one on her hip, the other wrapped around to the small of her back, pushing her closer to his body and kissed her with the same passion as her.

Lin broke away from his lips and pushed him against the tree trunk before she resumed her assault on his welcoming mouth.

She nibbled on his bottom lip as she grabbed him tighter in her grasp, not wanting to let him go.

Any sense Alec had to part from Lin was long gone and forgotten by now. His hand that had been placed on her hip slid down to her thigh and gently rubbed her before sliding his hand under and lifted her up with ease.

Lin gave a little yelp of surprise at the sudden bold action, but was glad that Alec was finally taking the initiative and wrapped her legs around his waist.

Alec spun around so now it was Lin's back that was against the tree.

Lin's finger's gently raked at Alec's back and grazed upward into his brown mane of soft hair. She grabbed a handful of his hair in her hand and guided him from her mouth to her neck.

Alec sucked and nibbled on the soft fair skin that elicited a pleasured moan that vibrated in Lin's throat.

He could feel her blood rushing through her body, like water traveling down a fast river. He could hear her heart pounding faster and faster against her chest as the excitement filled her being. As much as he wanted to deny it, he was excited as well.

Alec left a trail of kisses from her neck to her collarbone and followed his trail back up. When he kissed the crook of her neck, he paused a moment when he felt a long pulsing bump of a vein against his lips. He gave the darkening vein a light lick with his tongue that made Lin squirm in pleasure as Alec stayed on that spot.

"Mmm, that feels so good," Lin moaned as Alec nipped and licked at that particular spot, thinking he was doing this for her. What she didn't realize was the struggle he was going through to not sink his teeth into that protruding vein of hers.

Alec tried to stop himself, to get away from Lin but he couldn't leave. His body refused to listen to him and Lin only held him tighter whenever he made an attempt to leave.

Alec tried to calm himself, taking slow deep breaths so as to keep the monster within from making its appearance and harming Lin. However, he could feel his willpower gradually waning away as he began to lose his concentration when this gorgeous woman grinded herself on him.

A low growl rumbled in Alec's chest as he buried his face in Lin's soft bosom.

"Such an animal," Lin giggled when he rubbed his face in her chest before he went back to her neck.

"Ow!" Lin suddenly gasped when she felt a sharp pain at the base of her neck. Alec had been nipping at her skin, she didn't mind it at first. It actually felt really good. However, when he bit her again, it was a little rougher. She was sure he even broke skin and tried to push him away a bit.

"Wolfy," Lin called out to him but he didn't respond. He nipped her again as she tried to move his head away. "Wolfy, you're hurting me a little."

In his own stupor he could hear Lin, telling him to stop, that he was hurting her. He tried as hard as he could to stop himself, before he could do anymore damage.

With all the strength he could muster, Alec pushed himself off of Lin and staggered back a few steps. His eyes wide with shock at what he had done as he watched Lin rub where he had bitten her. This is just like what had happened with Samantha.

"Oh God, I'm so sorry," Alec apologized as he slowly backed away from her. She wasn't safe with him.

"It's okay Gray, you just surprised me is all. I had no idea that you liked it a little rough." Lin reassured him. She took a step closer toward him but Gray quickly backed away even further.

"Stay away from me!" He snapped at Lin. Lin backed off, frightened for once at the way Alec was acting toward her.

This situation, it only confirmed that he would harm Lin. He couldn't be with her, it would be the death of her.

"Gray?" Lin called out to him. Alec looked up to see the worried look in Lin's chocolate browns. she tried to take another step closer to close the gap between the two of them, only for Alec to back away from her.

"Don't!" Alec could see the hurt look in Lin's eyes that made him feel terrible for how he was acting. There was only one thing he could do now to ensure her safety. "I'm sorry, I have to go."

"Wait! Gray!" Lin called out when she tried to stop him but Gray wasn't listening to her and ran off across the park and the street to get back to his car in the parking lot, leaving Lin worried and confused at what had just happened.

Not too far from where Alec and Lin stood, two figures appeared from the shadows of the tree's as they watched Lin walk off while she dialed a phone number, most likely it was Gray she was trying to call.

"Do you see now?" Emilio asked Troy when they stepped out into the moonlight. "Do you see how dangerous he is?"

"But he stopped himself!" Troy retorted, trying to make a case to not get Alec killed. He was a cop, not a vigilante, and in his mind, a suspect is innocent until proven guilty. Though he had read the supposed claims of what Alec had done in the past, he only cared if Alec was a danger right now in the present, in his city. "He could've done it. He could've hurt Lin really bad but he didn't and ran away."

Emilio only shook his head in disappointment in his friends reluctance to do what needs to be done.

"That doesn't matter," Emilio countered. "That only confirms that the killer instinct is still in him. You saw him. He's desperate to feed, to kill someone. It's only a matter of time before he snaps and then…well, you're going to have a real killing spree on your hands. More deaths than any of these three gangs have done combined."

Troy remained silent. He was conflicted to do this. The kid hasn't harmed an innocent person as long as he's known him but Emilio was right, there was something dangerous lurking within Alec Gray.

Troy felt a small pressure pushing on his shoulder and found his friends hand resting on it.

"Look Troy, I know you don't want to kill him because you are only seeing the façade he hides behind. Deep down, he is a cold blooded vicious killer that needs to be stopped. I just want to get to him before he reveals what he truly is to the city and make sure that no innocent man woman or child end up murdered in the streets because of his insatiable hunger. He needs to be dealt with, soon."

Troy read the stories about Alec's past transgressions, and if half of what Emilio said and what he read is true, then Alec was indeed a problem that had to be dealt with, immediately.

 _It's for the good of the city. We don't need a psychotic killer roaming free,_ Troy kept telling himself in his mind over and over again.

Turning his attention back to Emilio, Troy gave a curt nod that made his friend smile in victory of winning Troy over.

With a pat on the back, Emilio led Troy back to his car.

"Alright, let's get to planning."

 _ **To be continued…**_

* * *

 **Alright, so like I posted on the seventh chapter, the eighth chapter will be broken into two parts.**

 **Yeah, I ended up having so many ideas for the eighth chapter that I couldn't write it all in or else this chapter would have taken much longer to be posted so I decided to break it into pieces. Now, unfortunately, that doesn't mean I have everything written down for the part two, just idea's in a notebook and until my hand fully recovers, I won't be able to write anything anytime soon. ( I just had to injure my writing hand ), but as soon as I can, I will let you know.**

 **Oh, before I forget…**

 _ **Disclaimer,**_

 _ **The songs I used in the story; Take on me by Aha and Send love through/Angel's song (from the movie Rock & Rule) by Debbie Harry belong to their respective owners.**_

 **As always, I hope you all enjoyed the chapter and please let me know what you think.**


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